ciroccoj | Siskel and Ebert (I can never remember the new guy's name)

So, as part of the new "less violence" regime in our home, we decided to restrict, if not outright ban, most violent movies and TV shows. We knew this meant that other movies would take their place, because nature abhors a vacuum. Fearing that we would quickly become inundated with Land Before Time Parts I-XXXIX (which I would so love to destroy, along with Barney, but which the kids love), I decided to be proactive and choose interesting non-violent children's movies for the kids. So when we go to Blockbuster, they pick one movie (LBT) and I pick one (non-LBT).

So I rented Ruby Bridges, the true story of a 6-year old girl who integrated an all-white elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1960. We watched it, talked about it, and a few days later, I asked the boys what they remembered of it.

Me: What was Ruby Bridges about?
Justin: I don't know.
Me: What do you remember about it?
Justin: About Ruby going to a white school.
Me: Why was that important?
Justin: I don't know?
Me: What colour was Ruby?
Justin: Black and the people in um, the people in her class were white.
Me: Why was that important?
Justin: I don't know.
Me: Were there any other black kids in her class?
Justin: (shaking head) Mm-mm.
Me: Why not?
Justin: They just didn't want to go they wanted to stay away from the whites.
Me: Why?
Justin: Don't know. (pause) Because they thought the white people would hurt them.
Me: Did they?
Justin: (Shaking head) Mm-mm. ¹
Me: How did they treat Ruby?
Justin: Badly.
Me: What did they do?
Justin: One of them screamed I am going to poison you, and another one didn't just yell, she showed Ruby a little black girl in a wooden toy that looked like a coffin – what they meant was I'm gonna kill you.
Me: Why did they do that?
Justin: Because Ruby was black and they didn't like black people.
Me: Did Ruby go home after that?
Justin: No. She liked her teacher.
Me: Did her teacher yell at her?
Justin: No.
Me: Why did Ruby go to a white school? Why not a black school?
Justin: She wanted a new teacher – a white teacher.
Me: Weren't there any good black teachers?
Justin: No, there weren't any black teachers. ²
Me: How did other kids treat Ruby?
Justin: What kids?
Me: Remember, eventually there were other kids in class with Ruby?
Justin: Good.
Me: What do you think of Ruby?
Justin: Well, I like her, because she's black, and I like black and white people. And she was brave and smart.
Me: What did she do that was brave?
Justin: Well, she wasn't scared of people yelling at her.

Daniel: I remember that Ruby was very brave, and she went to a white school, and there was an angry mob and a little white boy tried to ignore her as much as he could, and they ended up being friends, and Ruby was black and because she went to a white school, her dad was fired and they couldn't go to the store.
Me: Why was he fired?
Daniel: I dunno.
Me: Why couldn't they go into the store?
Daniel: Because they were losing customers.
Me: Why?
Daniel: Don't know.
Me: How did they get food?
Daniel: From the store. A lady brought them their food.³ (Pause) And police officers went with her because with police officers nobody could hurt her, and a nice grandma was threatening to poison her, strangle her, and took out a coffin with a little black girl in it.
Me: Why did she go to a white school? Weren't there any black schools?
Daniel: They didn't even have washrooms, they were terrible!⁴
Me: Why didn't the white people want her there?
Daniel: Because they were afraid.
Me: Of what?
Daniel: Because they thought black people were stinky and dumb.
Me: Did she change that?
Daniel: Yeah, when they saw black and white kids getting along, they thought, You know what? This is silly. Blacks are just as good and clean and smart as whites.
Oh and the reason she was going to school instead of being a slave was because the North won the battle.
Me: Could you do what Ruby did?
Daniel: Yeah.
Me: Wouldn't you be scared?
Daniel: Yeah.
Me: You'd do it anyway?
Daniel: Yeah. I think so.

***
¹ Remember, this was a children's movie. They did not show graphic violence, thought they did talk about it.
² I'm guessing Justin was saying that there weren't any black teachers at Ruby's new school. No black school scenes were shown.
³ The woman who owned the local grocery store asked Ruby's family to stop shopping there. Ruby's father reminded her that he'd been one of her first customers, back when she had just set up the store and none of the other locals wanted to shop in a Jewish person's store. Later, the same woman is shown delivering groceries to Ruby's family. Don't know if this actually happened or was part of the movie - although just about everything else in the movie did actually happen, including the death threats, firing, etc.
⁴ Well, they did have washrooms. But no guarantee that they would work.

Justin: I think Ruby is an old woman now.
Me: Actually, I think she's only about 55-60 years old.
Daniel: Oh, that's pretty old.

Ruby is still alive, by the way. She's on the board of the Ruby Bridges Foundation.