“Decrease the Heat!”

The Crown Heights riots took place in August, 1991 in Brooklyn, New York, and lasted for three days. The riots were sparked when a Guyanese boy was accidently struck and killed by a Jewish man driving his car. During the accident, a privately owned ambulance, paid for by the Jewish community, arrived first and rushed the Jewish man to the hospital, leaving the boy to die. This caused anger amongst the black community and was later expressed in the form of riots. To help better understand the underlying factors of the 1991 riots, our professor showed the class a movie titled, Crown Height, directed by Jeremy Kagan, which was a film about healing the community.

The movie centered on two kids, one a Hasidic Jew, and the other an African-American, both from two different cultures with one thing in common, hip-hop. To help heal their community, they put together a hip-hop group and performed at schools and community affairs.  In a particular scene, when the community leaders brought the kids from both sides of the community together for a discussion, I noticed they had lack knowledge for each other’s culture. They questioned each other about their clothing and hair and, at times, made racial comments in between. This scene is important because violence seems to come from not being able to identify with a particular person or group. People feel the need to identify with one another. However, if one cannot, it is safe to say that emotional tension may occur.