Christian Living

Unlearned Lessons from Green Book

by Bro. Kenya Branch
03/29/19
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During the same weekend as the vicious terror attack in New Zealand that claimed 50 lives, I watched the movie Green Book, which just won an Oscar for best picture. Both exposed the vile underbelly of the persistent hatred in our world based on the evil supposition that some groups are superior to others.

The New Zealand attacker targeted Muslim worshippers in two mosques, ironically located in the town of Christchurch. The terrorist was a white nationalist extremist who considered the Muslims to be outsiders who invaded the sanctity of the country he apparently felt only belonged to people like him.

In the movie, Greenbook, which was derived from a true story, Tony “Lip” Vallelonga, a street wise Italian from the Bronx became the driver of Donald Shirley, an African American musical icon, a master of classical and pop music during a concert tour through the deep south fraught with danger and degradation during the early 1960’s.  

In the movie, two very different individuals, during a work relationship became friends. The movie limited their working relationship to only two months but it actually lasted a year and a half.

Tony was brash, a nightclub bouncer from the streets, equally comfortable using his fist as he was with biting street slang. Conversely, Donald was refined, a college educated musical prodigy, a scholar in the arts who was multi-lingual.

Against all odds, they forged a friendship, accepting each other’s personalities and shortcomings, even as they took a metaphorical walk in each other’s shoes and learned from each other.

Donald intended for the tour to transform the hearts of bigots who looked at black people as less than. It’s not clear that any of the concert goers experienced any dramatic change but Tony, who was depicted as being bigoted in the beginning of the film, recognized Donald as a genius and a friend at the end.

I’m convinced that anyone with an open mind and pure intentions can learn that people of different ethnicities and skin colors are of the same human family and share the same basic desires.

This belief and reality inform my filmmaking and ministry. I have been told that the pen is mightier than the sword. If so, I’m a communication warrior conveying the truth about our capacity and potential to love.

The unknown mixed with fear produces hate that divides, conquers and kills like the terrorist in New Zealand. 

The unlearned lesson from Green Book is that the fear and hatred of the unknown would dissipate if humanity would sincerely seek to know and love all segments of itself.