Reggie Yates- Race Riots USA

So, I am a big fan of documentaries because they are engaging, informative and often cover serious issues that people need to be aware of. Reggie Yates-Race Riots USA definitely did not disappoint and I thoroughly enjoyed and learnt a great amount of information from it.  

Race Riots USA was directed and filmed by Ruhi Hamid and produced in 2015 by Kandise Abiola and Sam Anthony with BBC Three and Sundog Pictures. Stephen Slator was the archive researcher, Russel Crockett was the editor and Gary Black and Matt Gettemieir were the sound recordists. Presented by Reggie Yates and starring Clifton Kinnie, Dorothy Kaiser and Brendan Roediger, Race Riots USA explores the position of African-Americans in America’s current society. This investigation was triggered by the death of black teenager, Michael Brown who was killed by white policeman, Darren Wilson a year ago in the town of Ferguson. This death led to rioting in Ferguson and when Reggie goes to visit the town, he discovers a new generation of young activists. He was led around by 18 year old, Clifton Kinnie who helps to unravel the story of Michael Brown and Kinnie was a big figure in this documentary because he emphasised that he just wants freedom and he wants himself and his younger brother to feel safe when walking down the street. This really highlights the issue of police brutality in America and how it is targeted towards race, conveying that the negative representations of black people in the media have contributed to the negative stereotypes that they are associated with (violent, always out to cause trouble etc.) and this is wrong.  

Some shocking statistics were mentioned in this documentary that help to back up these points. 70% of Ferguson’s citizens are black and on the day of the shooting, only 3/53 of the police were black. Michael Brown’s body was left on the road for four hours in front of his friends and family. Last year, 11,000 people in Ferguson were stopped for traffic violations and 9/10 of these people were African Americans. Ferguson police have spent more money on uniforms than on training. 280 million guns are owned by Americans. These really horrified me and by including these statistics, Reggie is providing contextual factors for the audience that can help them to generate their own opinion and for me, I thought it was absolutely awful Michael’s body was left on the road for four hours because that is extremely disrespectful and just imagine being there and having to witness such an emotional and heart-wrenching moment.

Furthermore in this documentary, Reggie covers both sides of the argument and talks to a wide variety of people so the overall experience is un-biased for the audience. He joins the new recruits on police training day and watches them undergo a traffic stop in which they almost immediately pull out guns and the situation escalates very quickly and their reasoning for this was because the citizens in the car are likely to also own guns. I really don’t agree with how easy it is for an American to purchase a gun and yes, although they have it to protect themselves, they are not exactly safer if everyone else also has one so I think something definitely needs to be done about this issue in my opinion. He also talks to a pro-police party who are in support of Darren Wilson and it was interesting to see that all but one of these people were white, emphasising that it is not their race being targeted by the police and this inequality needs to change.

In conclusion, I loved this documentary because it was strong, powerful and emotional and I gained a really beneficial understanding of the race issues in America. Reggie Yates covered the story really well and I thought it was great how he spoke to people across the argument rather than just one particular side because it gave the audience a more in-depth insight and this will definitely be great for a media case study due to its coverage on the representation of race.