Movies |
A Most Beautiful Thing
By
Published: Aug 20, 2023
Category:
Documentary
“A Most Beautiful Thing” is based on a book by Arshay Cooper. In it, Cooper — who grew up in a violent and drug-and gang-dominated neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago — described the formation of what appears to be the first all-Black high school rowing team, including members of rival gangs who gathered at Chicago’s Manley high school.
Rowing has been a white sport forever. Not here. “Manley high school had never had a rowing team; the students who finally agreed to join the boat were from rival gangs and in other circumstances would have been fighting with one another; few of them even knew how to swim. Basketball and football were sports for real men. Rowing?
They were mocked by many of their Black schoolmates — and by many of the white rowers whose world they tried to join. On one of the Manley crew’s first forays onto the water in Chicago, all of its rowers were wearing life jackets, which was one of many reasons they were the object of sneers from the all-white high school and college crews also on the water.
If you watch the preview, you’ll want to watch the documentary on Amazon Prime.
(H/T James Fallows)
