Arriving in "the promised land," the two eventually find work in the Chicago stockyards, where they find that the racism they hoped they left behind in Mississippi is just as prevalent, compounded by labor disputes and unsteady work in dangerous conditions. In THE KILLING FLOOR, two lifelong friends, Frank Custer and Thomas Joshua, leave their families behind in Mississippi to find work and a better life in Chicago in 1917.
Besides racial epithets and outdated words to describe African American like "coloreds," ethnic slurs are also used. Some drinking in a bar, in the employee locker room after work, and in a train car. In terms of content, there are some violent moments, including scenes of white men firing rifles from a car at African Americans who are sitting on the stoops of their apartments, dead bodies on the streets, agitators throwing bricks at union leaders. The movie explores these issues with tremendous depth and nuance, effectively showing the connections between economic class and race, how union leaders attempted to transcend racism and prejudice for a greater good, and the challenges faced by the lead character in trying to convince African Americans to join a union when many African Americans viewed unions as just another institution that took their money and only looked out for white Americans. It should inspire discussion among families about prejudice by race and ethnicity, the rise of labor unions and the labor movement, and how the owners of large industries (in this case, meatpackers) would flame racial and ethnic tensions in order to ensure that there would always be a pool of workers willing to work for low pay and no job security. In a time when Americans are reassessing their history and the role systemic racism has played and plays in American life, this movie is incredibly timely and relevant. As a movie set in the years during and after World War I, against a backdrop of labor tensions and the "Chicago Race Riot of 1919," racism is a central theme to the movie, and as such, the "N" word is often used, including racist graffiti on a viaduct as a threat to African Americans who must walk through a "white" neighborhood in order to get to their jobs. Parents need to know that The Killing Floor is a 1984 drama in which an African American man moves to Chicago during World War I, finds work in the stockyards, and takes part in the labor movement. Men in a meat packing locker room pass around a bottle of whiskey.ĭid you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide. Men pass around a jug while riding in a train car.
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