We have seen and heard a lot about individual cases of terrible racial injustices. What makes this film different, and precious, is the way it shows the way good people were terribly hurt in a 1,001 little ways, every day of their lives - not only by a system designed to keep them as second-class citizens every bit as nasty as apartheid, but by the way others who considered themselves good people enforced that system and behaved towards fellow members of society who were making an important contribution to that society.
I don't know how it is possible for white people in the USA not to watch films like this without squirming in their seats, not from guilt - for guilt is not something one inherits, nor is it automatically collective - but from the discomfort of seeing how badly people can treat one another, based entirely on the colour of their skin (or any of the myriad other silly little ways that are used to divide us as a society - how can any reasonable person believe such distinctions reflect a person's true worth?).
