Recently, fancy private school Dalton has had a tough time in the press—a year after getting called out for openly shaming rejected children of alumni in favor of fundraising, they're issuing a public apology for showing an "insensitive" film about slavery to high school students.
The film, CS.A.: The Confederate States of America, is a mockumentary satirizing slavery and race relations, depicting what the United States might be like if the Confederates had won the Civil War. Writer and director Kevin Willmott is a professor of film at the University of Kansas, and his other projects, like The Only Good Indian, often explore racial issues.
Willmott told the Times that the IFC-distributed C.S.A, which features satirical commercials for electronic slave shackles and a COPS parody that substitutes runaway slaves for criminals, was intended as "an opportunity for dialogue in the school setting," and bases a number of events and ideas featured in the film on real life history.
And it seems C.S.A. did start a discussion, though perhaps not the kind Willmott intended. According to the Times, Dalton screened the film for sophomores as part of a history project presentation, but a number of students said they were uncomfortable with the film's comical handling of race. So, the school issued an apology. From Head of School Ellen C. Stein:
At Dalton, we believe in the highest levels of respect and sensitivity for the diverse nature of our student body and community. Monday's screening should not have taken place and we sincerely regret that the film was shown. We have been meeting with students and families to apologize. To ensure this does not happen in the future, we are accelerating and expanding our planned diversity and professional development training and initiatives to guarantee that Dalton's mission is embedded in all our work.
Dalton's public redress is certainly interesting. High school classes don't necessarily shy away from showing movies that may make students uncomfortable—several of my high school history classes showcased scenes from decidedly racist films like Triumph of the Will and Birth of the Nation, though they were provided within historical context. C.S.A. is a satire, and from the looks of its reception it's a good one—Rotten Tomatoes lists at at 78 percent fresh. Then again, judging by the film's YouTube comments, Dalton students aren't the only ones who misunderstood it, though you'd think $40K-a-year would put a 15-year-old slightly ahead of an Internet troll.
