The film Green Book directed by Peter Farrelly tells the story of Dr. Shirley, an excellent African American pianist, who has to go on a national tour due to the company’s arrangement and experiences many injustices along the way. His driver is Tony, a white man, more specifically an Italian, who has just lost his job. At first, Tony also discriminates against black people. When two black workers use his family’s water glasses, he throws them into the trash can. He does this job just due to making a living and high salary. However, Shirley helps Tony write to his wife every day, and Tony is gradually attracted and admired by Shirley’s unique and elegant temperament when he plays the piano. The context of the film is set in 1960s America when the United States has a policy of segregation. The South, where they tour, has the worst discrimination and segregation. The name of the film Green Book, meanwhile, is actually a guide book which points out the restaurant or hotel where black people are allowed in. As a person who has a high social status, education level, and cultural attainment, Dr. Shirley still suffers from discrimination and segregation. Just like the intersecting identity that we have learned, although Shirley is a highly respected pianist of high social status in the north, he endures great sufferings and injuries by severe segregation in the south, even hard to get the treatment of ordinary people. For example, he was invited to play the piano at a party, but he was not allowed to eat in the banquet hall. These discriminations and inhuman treatments have become commonplace in the south. Even this, Shirley never used any violence to resist injustices and stopped Tony’s violence that helped him out. Does the non-violence principle remind you of anything? Yeah! The non-violence principle comes from the Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King. Dr. King and Shirley are both know that violence is not the solution. Many people’s prejudice stems from the stereotypes of the black community. If they embrace the violence, the black community will be marked as mobs. Violence may cause bigger violence and much more prejudice to the black community.
The creator is clever that highlights the suffering and injuries of the black community under the segregation and injustice from the perspective of black people with high social status, which implies the comprehensiveness of discrimination. Meanwhile, the creator wants us to listen to or understand the black community’s voice instead of following the stereotype of the black people and resist them, by observing the attitude change process of Tony to Shirley.
