Renowned rapper, producer, actor, and filmmaker RZA (Robert Fitzgerald Diggs) has delivered a bold, cinematic statement that examines interracial dynamics in contemporary society. The film serves as a significant awareness piece, highlighting persistent stereotypes found in small towns across the United States. With executive producer Quentin Tarantino’s name on the byline, this will surely gain attention within the black and white communities in America. Good or bad, One Spoon of Chocolate strikes a nerve and squeezes it tightly for a long duration of time, never loosening its grip.  

Inspired by true events, a young black varsity basketball player is hitchhiking at night when a carload of floozy-like females offers him a ride, on the condition that he buys them groceries at a local convenience store. Unfortunately for this young man, he is set up to take a severe beating by several hooded white locals and awakes during a crude operation – the removal of a vital organ. Liver? Pancreas? Spleen? Hard to say, but the cruelest part is seeing him suffer before he is ultimately killed.

Meanwhile, Randy “Unique” Joneson is scheduled to be released from prison and aims to rehabilitate his conduct. His conviction resulted from an act committed in the defense of an innocent individual. He arranges a transfer with his parole officer, Beem (the handsome as ever Blair Underwood in a formidable role), to live with his relative Ramsee Joneson in Karensville, Ohio, where they share a home and begin a new chapter. Brief periods of happiness come to an end during a friendly basketball game at the community center when the cousins are suddenly disrupted by the same thugs who earlier attacked the hitchhiker. Violence intensifies rapidly, initiating a sequence of adverse developments that further expose issues surrounding racism, corruption, and public discontent.  

Ramsee and Randy are now targets of this neo-Nazi gang, led by the unhinged Sheriff’s son, Jimmy. Jimmy spends his spare time training young people the proper fighting techniques to use on black townsfolk. The mission is implicit but firmly stated later on: “His (a black man’s) misfortune is OUR fortune.” Thus is the connection between the delivery of dead black bodies to the makeshift butcher for black market organs sales. Sends chilling fury down your spine, huh? Well, just wait for the Tarantino influence to appear.  

There are car chases, explosions, and countless attacks on an extreme level of ferocity. Yes, One Spoon of Chocolate is unapologetically savage in such a suffocating manner where our protagonists are never safe. Even when they believe they are. The emotional build up for our fearless main character Randy reaches a heightened level of agony which he can no longer contain. And then, we enter a battle sequence on the scope of Kill-Bill chaos. It is bloody, vengeful and ultimately results into the most significant moment of truth…a candid discussion between the rivals which will shock you. Jimmy’s conviction through a sharp supremacist tongue is almost worse than watching the horrific organ removal surgery scenes. Put on full blast for all to hear, the racial tensions are never resolved. In fact, they are magnified into an abhorrent area which left me feeling hopeless. And given our current climate…a little scared for us all. “One spoon (of cocoa powder) changes a whole glass of milk.” This brilliance is uncomfortably accurate and you’ll experience it first hand with (hopefully) an open mind – not madness.