Racism Exposed in American Violet

Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films.
Alfre Woodwar as Alma Roberts and Xzibit as Darrell Hughes in American Violet.

By Broadside Correspondent Robert Guzman

The story of racial profiling is not an easy one to tell, but American Violet, the story of a woman falsely accused of dealing narcotics, effectively tells the tale.

At first glance you may not feel that you are affected by it, but this movie is designed not to make you think. Instead it is designed to make you feel.

The tale of Dee Roberts, played by Nicole Beharie, reflects on the real life story of Regina Kelly. Writer, director and executive director Tim Disney delivers a powerful movie in a short period of time with stunning accuracy.

Disney, who has no relation to the Walt Disney empire, was able to take the story of Kelly, a black woman from Texas having trouble supporting her four daughters, and shape her story to describe a woman’s struggle against a corrupt justice system.

The main conflict arises when the exceedingly powerful local District Attorney Calvin Beckett, who is played by Academy Award nominee Michael O’Keefe, leads a massive crime bust in the project housing area where Roberts lives. This raid leads to the arrest and detainment of more than 30 people, some of whom are falsely arrested in a military-like drug bust.

During the police raid, police search for Roberts at the local coffee shop where she is employed, arrest her and send her to a woman’s county jail where she is detained for more than 21 hours before she knows why she is in custody.

During these hours of confinement no one tells her that she was detained because she fits the profile of someone who is black and living in government housing. The judge sentences Roberts to prison and she begins the fight of her life against the corrupt system that falsely imprisoned her without the benefit of legal counsel.

Roberts, who has no history of drug involvement, is offered two choices: plead guilty and lose her benefits of government services, including her apartment, or remain in prison and possibly lose custody of her daughters.

Her estranged ex-boyfriend and the father of her two youngest children, played by rapper Xzibit, is involved with a woman convicted of child endangerment.

These four young girls who have witnessed the effects of losing a parent to separation stay with their grandmother, played by Alma Roberts, who offers a breath of fresh air to this very serious situation.

Roberts, never a woman to be defeated by life, takes the offer of the ACLU lawyer David Cohen, played by Tim Blake Nelson, to battle the corruption tearing her community and family apart.

Beckett, whose actions and words were based on true events is portrayed as the perfect nemesis for this tale. Beckett is seen as a strong racist character in a position of power, letting the audience see how much Dee Roberts was actually up against.

Last week, members of the film’s cast and crew took time to sit down and talk to the media about the film, which was released last Friday.

According to Disney, during a showing of the film in Texas, support from the community was so large that he had to call in private security from another county because the police that were betrayed in the film protested it.

All this, he said “made the debut in the small Texas town more authentic.”

The film itself evoked a visible reaction from the crowd. During certain parts of the movie, people in the audience were clearly disturbed at the actions of the corruption displayed on screen.

Disney and writer Bill Haney both spent the last four years working on the film, whose plot was derived from a feature story Haney heard on NPR one day on his commute home in Boston, Mass.

The story developed into a script that aimed to tackle racial profiling perpetrated by the police in the small Texas town according to Haney.

Kelly, the young woman that the story is based on and still not out of her thirties, seems shy in person and is seemly overwhelmed by the media’s attention to her story.

“I feel honored to be paid attention to,” she said. “I was grateful that they [Disney and Haney] included me in the process, everyone was great.”

Kelly, who still lives in the same government housing complex, Arlington Springs, says that the only way of changing this type of injustice is to get the message out that things like this do happen and that as voters, we have the power to affect who leads our community.

Disney described the filmmaking experience as “overwhelming and amazing.”

“[I am] surprised at the positive reaction I get from lawyers,” said Disney. “Real life doctors scoff at hospital dramas as do real life lawyers scoff at courtroom dramas, but I have been pleased with the positive reaction that I have gotten from lawyers who have helped me research this story.”