This 1972 color educational short produced by Coronet Films uses footage of Chicago, Illinois and staged documentary-style interviews to comment on evolving attitudes about ethnic minority groups. By today’s standards, the film provides screen time to cringe-worthy, scripted racist and anti-racist perspectives, while blurring definitions of race and ethnicity (TRT:13:51).
The Chinese-style architecture of the Pui Tak Center Building on Wentworth in Chicago, Illinois (0:10). The San Juan theater, aka the Biltmore, aka the Alameda, in West Town. The marquee advertises “Jaime Sanchez en La Palomilla” (1970) and “Trampa Para Un Cadáver” (1969) (0:23). Opening titles over the streets of West Town (0:35). A black man with an afro looks across a city street towards an ad for Kent Menthol cigarettes: “The Together Smoke,” which features a smiling black couple. Also, another ad: “Bufferin is Bad. Baby. (And That’s Good.) Pan to elderly African Americans in urban Chicago” (0:40). Italian newspapers. People exiting a subway station (0:52). A tall, white, bald man sticks out above a crowd of pedestrians near a chain location of “Wimpy, The Glorified Hamburger” (1:30). Women flight attendants. One white, one Asian, one Black (1:39). A high-rise apartment complex. More Chicago pedestrians (1:48). Vox Pops / Street Interviews: A woman in a babushka speaks on the subject of “social power” (2:09). A black man in a turtleneck speaks about prejudice (2:28). A white man in a raincoat speaks on deprivation (2:37). An Asian woman speaks on racism (2:52). A man speaks on business exploitation (2:58). A white man with a heavy Irish accent speaks on discrimination (3:10). A Broadway bound city bus (3:22). Interviews continue (3:32). A woman with dark hair says that Italians self-identify as a minority (3:57). Women pedestrians. A nun. Men in fedoras (4:09). Japanese men. One enters a building marked, “Japan Trade Center.” Elderly men and women (4:46). A sweaty white man squints into the sun. Another man walks by wearing a shirt with a wide collar. The narrator invites us to guess at his religious background. The strange game continues with another man in a raincoat smoking a pipe (5:33). Next, women are given the ethic profiling challenge (6:18). A statue of the Virgin Mary in front of a Catholic church (6:53). A Jewish Temple. A Buddhist “Zen Center.” The Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. A political rally (7:08). School, library, and classroom scenes (7:30). A man wearing goggles works at a polishing wheel. A nurse fills a syringe . A typist at an electric typewriter. A doctor (7:47). Interviews resume. A drive-by view of residential, suburban homes. People shoveling snow and working in a junkyard (8:20). Pedestrians distorted reflections in a mirrored building (10:20). A white man in an office denies that there is a “majority” in United States society (10:33). Decrepit and destroyed residential midwestern buildings (11:21). A white woman speaks from her front door, a young girl behind her. She blames minorities for problems they “bring on themselves” and asserts that they “take advantage of the situation” over shots of looting (11:29). National Guardsmen on patrol outside “Joyland – Available for Dances.” White policemen arrest a black man (11:47). A skeptical man with a thinly-veiled racist attitude claims “they” want “special rights” while changing tires. He claims there is discrimination against people who “pay their taxes” and “earn what they get” (11:57). More footage of Chicago pedestrians. A racially diverse montage of closeups (12:18). “The End” and Credits. Script: Tom Ascher; Direction: J. William Walker and James Cullen; Photography Wayne A. Kolar; Editing Paul K. Basten (13:25).
The film also credits “Educational Collaborator” Arthur Mann, Ph.D., Professor of American History at the University of Chicago.
