Watching either one of these documentaries would have been interesting. Watching both of them back to back was frightening. “Angry, White and American” paints a picture of a nation divided into factions of hatred and fear, while “How China Got Rich” shows how a poor country has reversed its trajectory and is becoming the largest economy in the world. Projections are terrifying. “Forecasts from Bloomberg Economics suggest China could grab the top spot – held by the United States for well over a century – as soon as 2031.”
“Angry, White and American” follows reporter Gary Younge, a black man from the U.K. who has a wife from the U.S.. Younge’s family has roots in America, so he is both knowledgeable and concerned. One of his interviewees, involves a clean, white, nice looking man, Richard Spencer, spreading his version of history and fact: “Africans have benefited from white supremacy”
Here is a sample of Younge’s video
“Angry, White and American” was just plain sad. The people in the south seem out of step with reality. It seems like the War Between the States was just a year or two ago instead of a century and a half behind us.
Story Line:
British journalist Gary Younge explores the issue of race in America by traveling from Maine to Mississippi talking to white Americans about the issues that make them angry – from disappearing jobs to the epidemic levels of drug use.
There were flaws in the interview style. Although Younge, is experienced, he ended up arguing, but that was mostly in one interview.
User Review #11
Oh dear…
I was hoping to find something that would help me understand the mindset of the people in the film, but instead I got an angry man who just wanted to argue with them. I don’t blame him for wanting to argue with them, but that’s not what I and most other viewers wanted to see. I couldn’t watch the whole thing.
I think the second reviewer was right in that Donald Trump is not the face of fascism, but I do think that others have put him on that pedestal.
User Review #2
Hit or miss, fallacies and ignorance
digitalbeachbum1 March 2021
Racists are ignorant. Racism is a mental health issue.
I can’t put up with ignorance and I’m wondering if the reporter sought out or edited the clips to show all the stupid racist whites who don’t have a !@$% clue about history or science. There were gobs of logical fallacies being spewed out and ignorance was abundant.
Overall I’m not sure this production shows anything new. It just shows that a small percentage of idiots still exist and they are angry, white Americans who think that the blacks want to take over the country. These angry, white, Americans tend to be fascist in nature. They want a dictator, they want that dictator to selectively control capitalism, they want to violently suppress the opposition, they do not democracy or they want democracy provided it favors their views.
I find it interesting that the reporter found a white older male, who lived in a town previously supported by the work in the mills, say “what has Trump done now? Nothing! He hasn’t done anything!”. No truer words could be spoken from the man.
The views of this reporter doesn’t get in the way but I don’t believe the production explains anything. He seems to focus on Trump, who honestly isn’t the face of fascism. He’s the face of the wealthy, 1%, who will use the poor, angry, white Americans as pawns. He is also guilty of logical fallacies.
The video I think does show a country lost with many individuals still licking wounds from a hundred and fifty years ago. It is time for them to move on and embrace change and I don’t think they can do it quickly enough to save America from decline.
How China Got Rich
This is both a one hour production and supposedly a series, but I’ve seen no other pieces of a series. Perhaps they are planned for later.
Education is mandatory in China through the 9th grade, There is a small fee for high school. There is a gap in quality between students of rural and urban areas. A Chinese college education is not free, but the tuition fees are quite low when you compare them to the U.S. and ranges from $3300.00 to $9900.00 per year. In much of the world’s successful countries, college fees are either free or affordable. Unfortunately, here we sit in America weighing our students down with debt that some will never be able to pay off.
Here is the very informative video about the decline of China and then the resurgence at the end of the 1970s.
Story Line:
China’s decision to open up to the world has been one of the most significant events of modern history. So how did an impoverished communist country become an engine of global capitalism?
User Review #1
Explosion of wealth in impoverished China due to Deng Xiaoping, economic timing, and industriousness of the people.
Well-done documentary of the coming of Deng Xiaoping at the perfect time to expurgate ideology and move forward with facts, practicality. One hour of a powerful story, the superseding of poverty with an open market strategy.
User Review #2
Propaganda, Not Truth
TheJonesBones23 August 2021
While this “documentary” presents some interesting perspectives on China’s most recent past, this so-called “film” is not a serious, informative work. Rather, it is blatant propaganda. Pure and simple.
Scarce mention of the famine resultant from their “cultural revolution”. No mention of “one family, one child” policies and practices. No mention AT ALL of Tienanmen Square and the THOUSANDS of students that the Chinese government machine-gunned there!
According to this rag, all those students are happy recipients of the state’s love. Not ONE of them are sent abroad as government agents. Not one.
Watch if you want a laugh or if you enjoy propagandized ignorance. Otherwise, save your time and frustration.
The second review seemed a little too snotty for my tastes . . . like they perhaps had their own axe to grind or a party to support. I did wonder why there was no mention of Tiananmen Square in the video, but the cultural revolution was several years before the big change. The Chinese government is still concerned about the outlying cities that finally came of board with special laws, but that was addressed a bit in the documentary.
I know President Biden allocated funds for railroad work and upgrades, but I doubt that he pushed for bullet trains, which vary in speed from 150 and 187 miles per hour (in China). Bullet trains have cut the travel time from Beijing to Shanghai (672 miles) from 37 hours to four. So, a trip from Seattle to San Francisco would be approximately five hours.
Both videos can be found on Youtube and are worth watching, considering, and perhaps acting on while sharing a discussion with others.
I thought political articles were prohibited a month or so ago.
This entry appears to deliver a focus on “white” people as racist and backward. The article poses as a review but, comes across as a condemnation of white people and plays into the divisive narrative on race that is being pushed to further divide America.
A sequel is needed to “Angry, White and American”…………. “Angry, Black and American” with interviews from the “hood”. Racism comes in all colors.
Guess rules don’t universally apply.
Hey Marty. The restriction was to election and candidate content. You can read the announcement here. Signed, Ben Sclair.
I believe you are referencing my “Enough” post. Click here. It states, “Effective immediately, no election or candidate related content, of any kind, will be published on The Suburban Times.” Signed, Ben Sclair.
Thank you for correcting Marty’s memory lapse. It’s interesting how facts get twisted so quickly and then spread to others who never question. It is more important than ever for our local news to provide reliable and factual information.
Cheri. Thank you. Further clarification, if I may. I do NOT consider The Suburban Times to be “local news” as compared with KIRO or KOMO or The News Tribune. It is a website, I operate, that aggregates content from a variety of sources, including individual members of the community. I do not fact check. I do not assign stories. I do not edit. I aggregate local content and post it to this digital version of a community bulletin board. Perhaps you were thinking of traditional news companies with your reply. If not, I want to set the record straight. Signed, Ben Sclair.
Great to see Michael Wood again, taking us on a journey of discovery and understanding.
THANK YOU Don and Peg.
Bob,
Our reviews cover a wide variety of subjects. We only review what we think it interesting or worthy of discussion. Thanks for the appreciation.
Don
Why is this racist, one sided political article allowed? We all just witnessed racism in Waukesha WI at a Christmas parade and in the looting in San Francisco over the past few days. Articles like this biased piece cause events that we have all witnessed this week.
MJ,
As you point out racism has become a major problem in America. Ignoring it does nothing to fix the problem . . . and it has been a problem for years and years.
Don
Neither “documentary” comes across as worth watching and considering as scholarly, objective material–only as propaganda.
Sandra,
The point of the review and the videos themselves, is that America is falling behind . . . drastically. Most other modern countries offer higher education at minimal costs as well as providing reduced work weeks, time off for birth and families, and free or no cost medical and medicine. Happy workers are productive workers. I think our country needs to face reality and return to the time when we were forward looking. You can certainly disagree with my viewpoint, and the videos themselves. I submitted the review on the 19th of November. Three days later the Seattle Times carried an article by syndicated columnist with The Philadelphia Inquirer Trudy Rubin entitled, “Xi Jinping thinks the West is done.” I still like to think that we lead the West, but that has been in question now for several years. The final paragraph of her article says it all. “Continued interparty warfare in Congress and within the country, mostly fueled by the GOP, will only convince Xi that his belief in U.S. decline is on the money. In which case, the problem won’t be Xi’s ego. We will have defeated ourselves.” We need to recognize the problem and overcome it. No propaganda . . . just reality.