92 minutes, color
$99 (Individual) or $350 (Institutional or Professional Use)
The employment of affinity or caucus groups can be a powerful way to organize dialogues about racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and related issues. The purpose of caucus groups is to provide people with an opportunity to meet in-group and discuss the shared experiences, as well as the tensions and conflicts that exist within particular social identity groups.
In The Way Home, Shakti Butler highlights this approach, organizing 64 women into eight racially and ethnically defined “Councils.” Though the purpose of the individual council dialogues is to explore the challenges related to living in a white supremacist world, each group uncovers a variety of in-group issues and tensions based on skin color, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.
One of the key contributions of this film is its inclusion of perspectives often silenced, even within race dialogues. By including an Indigenous Council, an Arab Council, and a Multiracial Council, Butler challenges viewers to reconsider traditional perceptions of racial identity. In today's increasingly complex political environment regarding race, these Councils provide an important opportunity to consider the way that racism and other forms of oppression operate in our schools. More importantly, The Way Home challenges the Black/White simplicity with which race and racial identity and experience too often couched.
Another important contribution of the film is the inclusion of the White Council. Too often, dialogues about racism in and out of schools recycle racist dynamics by placing the onus of responsibility on People of Color to teach White People about race.
Despite the fact that The Way Home has received drastically less attention in the multicultural education field than The Color of Fear, it is just as powerful, and perhaps more progressive in scope and approach. (In fact, I wonder whether the fact that the filmmaker and participants of The Way Home are all women while those of The Color of Fear are all men, and the maintenance of sexism even within the multicultural education field, partially explains the discrepancy in how the two films have been received.) And considering that a large majority of our teachers are women, it may also be more applicable and relevant.
You can purchase this film by contacting New Day Films at 1-888-367-9154 or orders@newday.com. [an error occurred while processing this directive]