Talk to Me - Marc Dunham
In the film Talk To Me, the relationship between the main characters Dewey and Petey, as well as their white coworkers, exemplifies the race struggles experienced by African Americans during the 1960’s. Authority figures in the movie (such as the station direction, Sheen, the station’s board members, and the prison guards) were strongly represented by white men. In order for Dewey to succeed in these surroundings, he had adopted a lifestyle and behavior very similar to that of white American men. When behaving in this context, he was treated with respect by both his white peers and superiors. However, when Petey became a serious figure in his life, he began to admire the way that Petey didn’t feel the need to conform to white America. Associating himself with Petey was a way for Dewey to act against the oppressive standards of the society he lived and worked in.
There’s no doubt that Petey’s behavior has racist qualities, possessing a general distrust and contempt for white people. However, this sentiment is not completely unwarranted, and I see it as more akin to jadedness than true racism. In a state of continual repression, violence, and hatred shown by many white Americans toward blacks, it’s understandable how someone could develop this attitude. It was crucial for society at the time that black Americans attain positions of mass influence, such as disc jockeys, within the media infrastructure. Although one may think it would only further separate the cultures that many African Americans would identify only with black disc jockeys, it helped the situation much more than it hurt, as many of the black dj’s worked within programs built and run by white Americans, which in many instances helped the two work toward a common goal. One instance of this shown in the film was the sequences following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. With his broadcast, Petey Green almost single-handedly stopped the riots in the streets of Washington, D.C.