“Well, I don’t want to say ‘enjoy the show,'” director Rachel Lyon said at the start of the screening of her documentary, “Hate Crimes in the Heartland,” Feb. 25 in the CDM theater. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with prominent figures on the subject, including the director herself, and contributor and associate dean of DePaul’s College of Law, Andrea D. Lyon.

Her documentary, released only two weeks earlier, details two violent events in the racially charged city of Tulsa, Okla., and how they tie to hate crimes in a larger sense nationwide. The two events are the race riots of 1921 and the Good Friday shootings of 2012 that left three black citizens dead and two seriously wounded. The film reached out to survivors of these hate crimes as well as lawyers, police, NAACP officials and lawmakers.

The riots of 1921, set off by a phony accusation of rape, destroyed arguably the most vibrant black community of this time. Greenwood, known as the Black Wall Street, was a draw to prominent blacks as far as Chicago and New York. It was destroyed by the white community of Tulsa May 31 and June 1, resulting in the deaths of 300 blacks as well as the destruction of 35 city blocks.

The film seeks to provide an accurate history of the riots, the reactions and the causes of the violence, which have long gone unspoken. “We forget racial history; we try to sweep it under the rug,” Don Terry, a Q&A panel member as well as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, said.

Also of interest to the film-makers, the Good Friday shootings provided a modern example of how race relations in Tulsa are still strained at best. Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 34, shot five black citizens at random April 6, 2012. They were apprehended by police within 48 hours, in an effort to put a lid on a very racially charged situation. The long history of racial violence in Tulsa was reflected in what appeared to be random shootings based purely on race.

The death penalty was sought during the trials, further attracting the national spotlight to this crime. The fact that Watts has a half-brother who is black further muddled the situation, proving that race relations are never quite as simple as they seem.

“I thought it was very thought provoking,” Ashley Rose, DePaul sophomore, said. “I’m a CDM student, so my teacher let me know about the showing.”

Hate crimes have climbed dramatically in the past 10 years, and this film and its contributors seek to answer questions about why that has occurred. The tie to economic hardship was discussed, as well as the effect of media sources on the issue, capital punishment, the Chicago riots of 1921 and why Tulsa has been the scene of such events.

The film and discussion also provided a comparison to Chicago, with the panel detailing many hate crimes that occurred here. The riots, as well as multiple acts of police brutality, were brought up, such as the killing of Stephon Watts, an autistic black teen, by police in a Chicago suburb. The extremely recent trial of Michael Dunn was also discussed.

With so many race-related events coming to light in the media in recent years, from the Good Friday shootings to the killing of Trayvon Martin, the film seemed especially relevant. Its goal, as stated by the director, was to increase the honest conversation about race and its place in America.

“It really takes a range of people to change the conversation,” Lyon said. If that was the goal, then the discussion after the screening accomplished its job, at least in the short term. Continued discussion of race relations is important, especially if we want to reduce the 250,000 hate crimes still committed each year.