Movie Spotlight: The Color of Friendship

February 7, 2025

Welcome to the first (hopefully weekly) episode of my Black History Month spotlight series. Today we'll be discussing a 25-year-old Disney Channel original movie called The Color of Friendship.

What made me want to write about this movie? Well, I was pretty familiar with it when I was a kid, as it played in reruns on the Disney Channel fairly often, but it's not a movie that I see talked about very often, and according to the result of a quick Google search, it stopped airing regularly on TV around 2006. This series is meant to spotlight a few important and/or favorite pieces of media and artists that are maybe a little lesser-known, and I believe this movie falls into that category.

When Disney+ premiered, I rewatched The Color of Friendship as an adult, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't just a feel-good movie full of Disney fluff, but one that tackled the serious topic of racism and apartheid in a fairly adult way despite its target audience -- or perhaps because of its target audience, as it feels like it's directly speaking to teenagers who are beginning to get old enough to view things from a more adult perspective. As a fully-fledged adult, though, I still appreciate the movie's use of drama, fear, misunderstanding, and friendship to discuss the issue.

Another thing that makes this movie stand out is that it's loosely based on a true story. While parts of it were fictionalized, it was actually based on an autobiographical short story the real-life Piper Dellums, who is one of the two main characters in the movie, wrote about her experience as a young girl. If the story were completely made-up, some might actually claim it was unrealistically heartwarming, or say that the writers were "virtue signaling" by having the white character have such a change of heart from beginning to end. The fact that the characters were real people and the events largely true makes it a lot more impactful.

The movie takes place in 1977, and opens in Washington D.C., where Congressman Ron Dellums (a real U.S. Congressman from California who served from 1971 to 1998) lives with his wife and three kids, including his daughter Piper, who is determined to talk him into allowing her to host a South African exchange student, to "forge a kinship and bond with our Black African brothers and sisters." Her passionate plea -- combined with African dress, makeup, and music -- eventually works and he agrees to host.

Next, we go to Dundee, South Africa, where we meet Mahree Bok. Mahree shares Piper's enthusiasm for the exchange student program, but is not exactly what Piper is expecting: she's white. And not only that, but her father is a white South African police officer, whose introduction scene shows him bragging about arresting the anti-apartheid activist -- or "black agitator" in the words of Mahree's mother -- Steve Biko.

At home, the Bok family has a Black maid, Flora, who is friends with Mahree and cares about her, but understands the world much better than the teenager. Flora says that she thinks going to the United States will be good for Mahree because they "think differently over there" and "sometimes it's good to learn how other people think." Flora won't come right out and say it, and it goes over the younger girl's head, but it's obvious to viewers that she's hoping Mahree will come home with a different viewpoint after experiencing life in a country without apartheid. When Flora hears the name of the Congressman Mahree will be living with, she recognizes it, but purposely withholds the fact that the Dellums are a Black family. Mahree, in her indoctrinated racism, assumes that anyone holding a title like Congressman is white.

When Mahree's little brother comes home with a caged weaver bird, Flora tells them how the birds live in villages of their own, a bunch of small nests inside a larger community, multiple different families and colors, all helping each other and living together, never fighting. She wonders why people can't be more like them, which is quickly dismissed as silly by Mahree. The next thing her brother comes home with is a flag he found lying in the street, not knowing what it represents. Mahree tells him that it's the flag of the "South African troublemakers" and that their father would punish him if he caught him with it. Flora hides the flag in her dress, but ends up keeping it, pinning it inside her box of sewing supplies, where she also has newspaper articles about the work Congressman Dellums is doing in the U.S. to help end apartheid.

It isn't until they meet in person that both the Dellums family and Mahree realize the obvious difference between them, and it goes about as badly as can be expected. Mahree is scared and locks herself in Piper's bedroom, and the Dellums family, especially Ron, assumes that she's just a racist white -- a pretty fair assumption under the circumstances. At first the plan is to have her placed with another host family or sent home because they assume that's what she wants; but eventually, after overhearing a conversation between Piper and her mother Roscoe, she approaches them and says that she'd like to stay.

Ron isn't thrilled about that idea, especially after realizing that she's the daughter of a cop, but Roscoe reminds him that she is just a child and it's unfair to call her racist when they don't even know her. Although the family has no moral obligation to do so (in my opinion), they choose to let her stay and attempt to make her feel welcome, which of course leads to the two girls becoming good friends as time passes.

There are some difficult conversations had about Mahree's home country, in which Piper learns that South Africa has many books, movies, TV shows, etc. that are banned to "protect" its citizens -- something that Mahree has never even questioned -- and that Black South Africans are required to have ID passes that state where they're allowed to travel for work. They can even be arrested for traveling outside of their allowed area (which is stated as the reason Steve Biko was arrested at the beginning of the movie). Additionally, Piper unintentionally causes her father to almost kick Mahree out of the house in outrage after she mixes up two words Mahree had taught her, leading Ron to believe that she'd called his daughter a racial slur.

(The Afrikaans slur is said several times throughout the movie, which I guess is not entirely surprising in an English-speaking American film; however, the N-word is also said twice in one scene (uncensored), which honestly shocked me a little bit, even if it isn't used in a hateful context but an educational one. Still something to be aware of if you watch it.)

Other than that, things are going pretty well in the Dellums home until Steve Biko is killed. People from the South African embassy show up and forcibly remove Mahree "for her safety." They claim that Biko killed himself, but it's soon confirmed that the police were responsible, and there are many protesters and demonstrators outside of the embassy. Mahree doesn't want to go back to South Africa this way. Having left the Dellums home in tears, her sadness becomes anger and she yells at the embassy people after being told that she'll understand when she's older. She just wants to go back to the family she's learned to love.

After a hectic day of dealing with the aftermath of Biko's death, the Congressman arrives at the embassy and ends up taking Mahree home with him after threatening to take action against them for kidnapping a 14-year-old.

However, before they can be reunited, Piper's friend from Nigeria, Daniel, sows doubt in her mind about her friendship with Mahree, asking her if she thinks she would be able to go visit her 'friend' at her home in South Africa. It works and causes Piper to doubt their friendship, so by the time Mahree shows back up, Piper isn't exactly happy to see her. They fight and both end up storming out of Piper's bedroom. Roscoe follows Piper to another room of the house, and Ron goes outside to talk to Mahree.

During their conversation, Mahree admits through tears that Piper would not be able to visit her in South Africa, and that she'd give anything to be able to change that. This seems to be the moment Mahree has truly realized how wrong things are in her country -- and that it isn't just the government, but also the fault of her friends and neighbors, and likely her own family. While she doesn't say it out loud, I can tell she's thinking about her police-officer dad. It seems that she's finally learned the exact lesson that Flora was hoping she'd learn on her trip to the U.S.

After Piper joins them outside, apparently having been talked down by Roscoe offscreen, Mahree tells her and her dad the story Flora had told her about the weaver birds, which she had originally dismissed but now fully understands.

At a Pan-African Festival the city has been planning throughout the movie, Mahree and the Dellums family are walking together and encounter Piper's friend Daniel. He is handing out miniature flags that are exactly the same as the one Mahree's little brother found in the street before she left South Africa. Daniel describes them as "freedom flags for Black South Africans" and hands one to each member of the Dellums family. Mahree comments that the flags are banned back home. After a moment of hesitation, Daniel seems to decide that the flag could benefit her more than him, and offers her the last one he has. Ron then gives a speech to the crowd and re-tells the story of the weaver birds to everyone at the festival.

Finally, the family must say goodbye to their guest, as the semester is over and the exchange student program has ended. They have a touching goodbye at the airport, and Mahree returns home. She's most excited to see Flora, her Black maid, and runs into her arms when she gets to the house. After they hug, Mahree discreetly opens up her vest to show Flora the flag Daniel had given her, which is secretly sewn or pinned to the inside. Flora understands that Mahree did, in fact, learn some valuable lessons in the U.S. and is now on the side of those who oppose apartheid. After all, the Congressman did tell her that not only was change in her country possible, but it could even start with her.

Mahree then takes her brother's weaver bird out of its cage and joyfully sets it free outside, ending the movie. A black screen with text on it then says the words:

In 1986, the anti-apartheid bill, co-sponsored by Congressman Ronald V. Dellums, was passed by the House of Representatives. The first free elections in the history of South Africa took place in April 1994. The Dellums family was there.

What's really crazy is this movie came out in 2000, meaning it had only been six years since those elections when it was released.

Just as with Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to attend a white school in the U.S., Piper Dellums is another person who is not as old as one might expect somebody who lived these experiences to be. She is currently only 60 years old and has an Instagram account.

Racial segregation and socially-acceptable racism against Black people are recent history. And in some ways, they're current, too. Especially when we currently have politicians in office who are actively trying to remove anti-discrimination protections. While racism isn't as normalized now as it was in previous decades, it's still very much a thing -- in places like South Africa as well as here in the United States. And that's exactly why Black History Month is so important.

I haven't had the pleasure (yet) of reading Piper's short story, titled Simunyé, but I've been able to glean some more information about her friendship with the real-life Mahree (actually named Carrie) from others who've read it and shared tidbits online.

Mahree's instilled racism is pretty tame in the movie and mostly portrayed as fear of an unknown situation. She knows that there's tension between Blacks and whites within her own country, and for that reason, is unsure of how the Dellums will respond to her presence in their home. However, in real life, Carrie apparently took it quite a bit farther than that, doing things like using a towel to open doors in the Dellums home and sanitizing silverware before eating from it, to avoid touching the same surfaces they had touched. It sounds like her racism was far more developed in real life.

Which honestly makes it even more remarkable that she had such a drastic change of heart after her experience with the family. While the movie ends after Mahree shows her solidarity to Flora with the hidden flag, apparently the real-life Carrie became a true activist after returning home. Piper stated that Carrie had started the first anti-apartheid student underground movement, and was eventually jailed for her activism. At some point after that, letters from Carrie ceased, and Piper and her family were left to assume that she had been killed for speaking up for Blacks so publicly. This is a far more tragic ending than where the movie left off, but makes me feel really proud of the real-life Carrie for risking her life to do the right thing and stand up for the freedom of vulnerable people in her country.

I think it really goes to show how much a person's perspective can be changed by simply taking the time to get to know people who are different from them. Not everybody can be a foreign exchange student, but if everybody would actually spend time interacting with people from other social groups, in a way that helps them get to know them as individuals and recognize their shared humanity, then maybe there'd be fewer problems in the world.

In recent years, I've seen a couple of events pop up, both locally and in other parts of the United States, that invited people to sit down with groups of people who were facing discrimination (Muslims several years ago, and transgender people more recently), encouraging those who might have preconceived negative opinions to instead get to know some individuals from the marginalized group on a more personal level and converse with them. These events are based on a similar idea: that we all desire and deserve the same basic things, such as safety, acceptance, love, and to be true to ourselves; and that perhaps much of the bigotry in the world could be solved by simply getting to know each other and seeing how similar most of us are on the inside. I admire the marginalized people who take part in events like this, potentially putting their personal safety at risk to help others in their community be more accepted -- especially trans people in this political climate.

The event inviting people to get to know members of the trans community wasn't one that was local to me, or else I would have tried to attend just to make sure they had extra supporters there to back them up if needed. It has to be at least somewhat nerve-wracking putting yourself out there like that, not knowing exactly how hateful or potentially dangerous people who show up might be; and while I admire them for doing it, I think it's important to remember that it's never their responsibility to put themselves in harm's way just to prove their humanity to others. Just like it was never the Dellums family's responsibility to continue hosting a racist white girl in their home.

The onus should always be on the group who has the upper hand or privilege to extend the proverbial olive branch, rather than expecting the marginalized to always be 'the bigger person.' But ultimately, I still believe there'd be at least a little less bigotry in the world if everybody was willing to open their minds and try to make connections with people from diverse backgrounds before forming an opinion of them. I'm positive that my diverse friendships have made me a better person; and Mahree's/Carrie's friendship with Piper undoubtedly made her a better person. Being sheltered and refusing to make connections with people of other races, beliefs, cultures, religions, genders, sexual orientations, etc. won't 'protect' you; it will only keep you from seeing the truth.

I appreciate The Color of Friendship for bringing this to light and reminding us that human connection is so much deeper than skin color or any of the other differences we may have. We should all take the time -- especially those of us who might be fighting some internal prejudice instilled in us by our upbringing -- to learn about others from them and not from anything anyone else tells us about them. It's almost guaranteed that you have more in common than you think.

tags: black history month, movies, disney, friendship, relationships, racism, apartheid