A trip to the cinema recently took me to
see Hidden Figures, a film telling the story and triumph of three black female
astrophysicists, Katherine
G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, working
for NASA in during the 1960s.
The film is centered around the Cold War
space race between America and the USSR where America attempt to send the first
American, John Glenn, into space. The three ladies break down the barriers of
race and gender in this film as it shows their rise in the ranks of NASA.
The film opens and sets the scene by
showing the ladies in their youth depicting the segregation of black and white
schools in West Virginia at the time. There are many visual references towards
segregation during the beginning of the film that help colorize the scenario
African-Americans were in at that point in time, such as separate water
fountains and bathrooms for whites and ‘coloured’ people. Additionally, one of
the scenes that follows the introduction to the film shows the trio driving to
NASA and their car breaking down; A racist police officer stops and asks for identification. When they
explain that they work at NASA, he changes his tune; he's surprised they hire
black women, but he's impressed. He seems very well-versed in NASA and asserts
that the Americans have to beat the Russians in the Space Race. He asks if
they've met the astronauts; Mary answers that they have but it's clear from the
others' expressions that they're kept separate from them. Dorothy manages to
get the car up and running and the police officer provides them an escort --
lights and sirens blazing -- to the NASA Langley Research Center, which they
find ironic since it's not usually a group of black people speeding to follow a
police car.
We clearly see when they arrive at NASA and
start work that they are currently working, doing math with many other black
women in a job that is way under their mathematic potential, working in a
segregated wing to whites. Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst),
Dorothy's boss, comes in to talk to Dorothy. She tells her the Space Task Group
needs a new computer who can do analytic geometry. Dorothy assigns Katherine
because she knows analytic geometry and she's the all-around best at numbers.
She is then put in a room to work with only white men. Katherine Gobel is sent and she has to
deal with segregation and racial bias. But she not only does a good job, she
also solves several problems. One of her co-workers in particular sets to make
life difficult for her by making her proof read masses of his work with some
sections crossed out as he says it’s ‘classified’ information, meaning
Katherine must work out masses more work in the same time as everybody else.
And her co-worker, Mary Jackson, an engineer, is asked to help with the space
capsule. And when she figures out what is wrong with it, the head engineer
wants her to apply to the engineering program. But she is told that she still
needs a few more credits to qualify. And the only schools where she can take
the courses don't allow "colored" to attend. So she sets out to break
the barrier and successfully does so. Of course, this is reminiscent of many
triumph of desegregating schools and universities during that era, and the film
provides a detailed insight to one important example.
Their
unofficial supervisor, Dorothy Vaughan upon learning that new computers, an IBM
system, will be installed that can do the work her people usually does, which
means her whole department will be phased out and everyone laid off. So she
tries to learn how to handle the computer against the permission of her
co-workers and boss Vivian. After weeks of trial and error by white workers to
learn how to work this early computer system it is Dorothy that is the one that
learns to understand the system, leading her to receiving the eventual
promotion as official supervisor of her department.
One
significant scene in this movie that challenge social prejudice and
assimilation is the bathroom sequence. The bathroom sequence follows Katherine
as she must walk a fair distance, to a different building, just to use the
bathroom for coloured people. Of course, going this distance in all weather
conditions multiple times a day has an affect on her work, leading Katherine to
eventually pour her heart out at the difficulty of the scenario when questioned
by her manager Al Harrison (Kevin Costner). Harrison’s reaction to this is to
break the coloured sign down from the bathroom in front of black and white
workers, which stand at opposing sides of the room. He then goes on to say that
there shall be no more separate bathrooms- a small yet significant victory for
African American workers at NASA. There are many scenes throughout the movie
similar to this such as removal of segregated coffee machines etc. that all add
to the racial progress within the institution alongside the main narrative of
social mobility in the workplace for these African American women. Hidden
Figures is a true story of breaking down barriers of prejudice and assimilation
of African Americans into American culture and acceptance.
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