Reviewed by Melissa Antoinette Garza
There are times when something hits you so hard that the thought of it makes your heart pound harder and sadder and in a devastating way. Hearing about Emmett Till brings tears to my eyes and cast doubts in the conscience of humanity. Till was a young boy who was the victim of a vicious, unforgivable and despicable action. He was tortured and killed by racist monsters. The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till tells his story.
I have seen this documentary 100 times. It’s brilliant. There’s a reason
I’m reviewing this now. Recently, there have been so many incidents where people have cried racism or played the race card. The idiocy that is Tyler Perry (see: http://www.scaredstiffreviews.com/?p=1653), or Gwyneth Paltrow being called racist for promoting a Jay Z and Kanye West ablum or even the controversial case of Trayvon Martin are all good examples as to when people should really just shut the hell up. When people act offended because Paltrow is giving props to a song she likes, we’re screwed as a society. Now, if cases like Emmett Till didn’t exist, then I wouldn’t care about people throwing around the word racism….but racism is real and It causes the death of people every day.
I understand the case of Martin is different. One man is dead and the other is in jail, but the facts are not known in the case. What we know is that Martin died during a scuffle with an overzealous neighborhood watch. I’m unsure whether Zimmerman should go to jail for murder as I don’t have all of the facts and am unaware as to who began the scuffle. That said, even if Zimmerman killed Martin there isn’t anything that I’ve seen indicating it was due to race. If it was then Zimmerman is a single idiot who deserves to go to prison. Still, the outpouring of people pronouncing racism without the facts pisses me off.
There are serious incidents of racism that still occurs. In March, seven
teenagers from Palmdale brutally beat up a Hispanic teenager simply because of his race. Another incident happened this past March. In Kansas City, a 13 year old boy was doused with gasoline and set on fire while being told, “you get what you deserve, white boy.” It doesn’t end there. Whether we’re talking about churches with predominantly African American congregations being burned to the ground or gay bars that are targeted, our society is far from accepting.
The case of Emmett Till is one of the most disturbing I’ve ever seen. Emmett was 14 years old. He was in Mississippi visiting relatives. While visiting he whistled at a white woman named Carolyn Bryant. She ran home and told her husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Later these white douchebags went to Emmet’s Great Uncle’s house and demanded Emmett. Thinking they would let him live and only torture him a bit and then release him, Emmett went freely with the men.
What happened is one of the most disgusting and reprehensible acts I’ve ever heard. They took Emmett and tortured him to death. They brought him to a barn, took out one of his eyes, beat him and then the cowards shot him through the head. They threw his body into the Tallahatchie River holding it down with a cotton gin fan that was wrapped around his head and neck with barbed wire. The body was found a few days later.
When Till’s mother had her son’s boy brought back home, the funeral
director refused to show her Emmett. She insisted and was about to get a hammer to open the coffin herself when the director agreed. She then bravely decided to have the casket open during the services.
Whenever I watch this documentary there is a lot that goes through my head – the first is always “14 fucking years old! Why?” Grown men – grown adult men completely and brutally in the most animalistic and cruel way murdered a young child.
Emmett’s mother was then harassed by people sending letters and pictures and making phone calls to her in efforts to scare her away from going to the trial. God bless her, she still went.
The police department acted in a disgusting manner. The Sherriff in particular was too busy criticizing the NAACP instead of trying to protect the family. He actually went as far to blame the African American community advising that they visited places they shouldn’t.
Though, Bryant and Millam were “arrested” they were acquitted. They later bragged in a copy of “Look” Magazine about the murder. If there is a hell, there is most certainly a hot place waiting for them.
In 2007, Emmett Till’s case was officially closed as the statute of limitations prevented federal charges. Justice was never given to Emmett and the killers were able to enjoy their life with no ramifications.
The documentary is amazing in such a depressing way. It’s sad and though Emmett’s mother is such an inspiring woman, one can’t help but walkaway with a pit in their stomach.
Racism is such an important topic to discuss. There have been so many
horrendous actions, both by individuals and by the government. I could write about the Japanese American Internment camps, The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, politicians who were involved in the KKK, COINTELPRO, the takedown of The Black Panther Party, the reasoning for the harsher penalty for crack than for cocaine abuse, segregation, slavery, the right to vote, – the list goes on and on. That said, the story of Emmett Till – simply relaying his story does more to declare the disgusting aspects of racism than anything else could do. Till’s legacy will last forever but if I had a wish it would be that he could have lived his life. Though, his death did not go unnoticed, I believe his life would have been just as significant.
I just wish that when people throw around the word racism and when they talk about the inaction of the police that they’re careful. To compare something like Gwyneth Paltrow using the “n” word to Till’s murder is f’n ridiculous! We need to grow up. We need to call out racism when it’s real when it’s tangible and when it is more than just words. If someone sets a person on fire because of their race, then they need to go to jail…and we can’t separate the crime into “hate crimes.” A murder is a murder is a murder – but the people who act in a way that is inhuman deserve imprisonment. Classifying any crime as a “hate crime” we categorize it in a way that diminishes the action. “Oh they killed him because they hated (enter race).” NO. We need to end with “they killed him…they killed a PERSON. They took a life. IT wasn’t a white or a black or a Hispanic. It was a human being. Those assholes killed a human being and they deserved to go to prison for the rest of their life.
We are not colors or sexual orientations or anything but people….it’s when people forget that and they formulate hatred that this stupid shit happens. Calling a crime a “hate crime” doesn’t escalate the action despite the increased jail time….it diminishes it.
Till should have been able to get married and have children. Instead, he was murdered by a bunch of racist Klansmen. They tortured a living breathing human being who had the rest of his life ahead of him. Nothing is worse than that. It doesn’t need a qualifier or a stigma attached to it. It’s bad enough. The loss of Till remains a tragedy; not because he’s black or even because he died because he was black but simply because he was a child that was forced to go through torture before dying.
Scared Stiff Review: 10/10 A must see
its so sadd to see this because he was to young to die i no his mom wass very hurt in side because of wat they did to her child its hurtful theres one thing that they have shouuldnt did he was human like everybody eles and he stood strong and im so sorry he was smart and intelligent and he was good to one another R.I.P love you
I couldn’t agree more. It’s definitely a very sad story.