The Ernest Green Story is a 1993 Drama film that is based on true events. It follows the titular Ernest Green and the rest of the Little Rock Nine as they struggle to adapt attending a Central High School full of white students. It stars Morris Chestnut as Ernest.
The Ernest Green Story provides examples of:
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In spite of all the torture and hardships they all went through, Ernest and all of his friends, except Minnie Jean, successfully graduate from Central High School.
- Hate Sink: All of the white students are painfully cruel to the black students for little to no reason. They spend the majority of the film torturing, bullying and insulting them without feeling any remourse.
- Idiot Ball: The coach is told by Ernest that there is broken glass all over the shower floor, and even though he clearly sees the glass being swept up, he tells Ernest "There's no glass in there Green", and calls him a troublemaker.
- Jerkass: Not just the white students, but the principal as well.
- Karma Houdini: No matter WHAT the white students do to the black students note , they are NEVER punished for their terrible actions. Instead, it's the black students who get in trouble for sometimes retaliating. As Ernest tells his concerned mother:Ernest: They keep getting away with it. Nobody takes our word for nothing!
- No Sympathy: The faculty members never once show concern for the trouble that the black students endure.
- Rejected Apology: After Ernest accidentally bumps into a white girl, he apologizes to her, but instead of forgiving him, she goes to a group of white students to tell them about it, and they all give him upset glares.
