The Women Who Defended Themselves From Discrimination

Jennifer Romo, Entertainment Editor

The film “Hidden Figures” is based on a true story of three genius African American women who made history at NASA while facing a great amount of discrimination. It is an amazing film for anyone to see. And it demonstrates why the civil rights movement was necessary for all people of color and women.

The setting takes place in the 1960s in Virginia. NASA employees Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) worked in the “colored” computer basement area that was viewed as unimportant.

Johnson, Vaughan, and Jackson had to work twice as hard in order to gain recognition. When Johnson was promoted because she was needed to revise math calculations of engineers trying to send John Glenn to orbit the moon, she faced daily struggles with her white peers. She was forced to either run or walk a mile to use the “colored” restroom, in order to obey a stupid law when she could have spent her time on computations and helping America. However, she still worked her butt off to help a country that discriminated against her race and color and still managed to calculate the correct calculations to send Glenn to the moon, which was something her male white peers couldn’t accomplish.

When Jackson was denied the position of an engineer because she didn’t have a masters degree that she could not obtain due to institutional racism, she had to take her case to court and convince the judge and his big ego to let her take the night classes necessary for her masters degree. She made history by being the first African American female engineer to work for NASA.

When Vaughn becomes aware that her computer job was going to be eliminated because of the upcoming installation of IBM computers, she teaches herself and her co workers the programming language. She saved the jobs of her African American co-workers and they got themselves a promotion to work where the “whites” worked.

I rate “Hidden Figures” a solid 10/10. It is a very inspiring movie with a very important message that is still relevant to this day with all the issues we still have with racism and sexism. It shows how racism and sexism not only puts down those that are oppressed, but also keeps the country itself from becoming the best it can be.