Free film on Friday looks at racial injustice, unconscious bias, prejudice

A PBS film that looks at recognizing racial injustice and unconscious bias, bigotry, and prejudice will be shown at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church on Friday.

The community is invited to join the ORUUC group Allies for Racial Equity for the free viewing of the PBS film “American Denial,” a press release said.

The showing will start at 7 p.m. Friday, May 15, in the Social Hall of the church, which is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge.

Following the film there will be time for a guided conversation. The event will last until 9 p.m.

Here’s part of the PBS description of the film: “’American Denial’ explores the impact of unconscious biases around race and class, using Gunnar Myrdal’s 1944 investigation of Jim Crow racism. The film sheds light on the unconscious political and moral world of modern Americans, using archival footage, newsreels, nightly news reports, and rare southern home movies from the ‘30s and ‘40s, as well as research footage, websites, and YouTube films showing psychological testing of racial attitudes.

“Exploring ‘stop-and-frisk’ practices, the incarceration crisis, and racially-patterned poverty, the film features a wide array of historians, psychologists, and sociologists who offer expert insight and share their own personal, unsettling stories. The result is a unique and provocative film that challenges our assumptions about who we are and what we really believe.”

For more information on the film go to pbs.org/independentlens/american-denial. For more information on the event, call the ORUUC office at (865) 483-6761.