Add to Favorites
This last week, CNN broadcast a new documentary from their Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Black in America. From CNN’s website, “Forty years after the death of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., CNN took an unprecedented look at the state of black America in ‘CNN Presents: Black in America. The success, struggle, pain and pride.’”
I have watched part of this new documentary, but I have it recorded on DVR to finish the entire four-hour documentary. I believe it is a compelling look at a social issue from our history and the effect on our present. In light of this thought-provoking motion picture and the current political news with Barack Obama as the presumptive DNC nominee for President, I wanted to revisit an article I wrote over a year ago.
A course of a different color – the story of a white man immersed in a black man’s world in 1959:
John Howard Griffin authored a compelling, true story that grips the mind of everyone willing to hope and dream of a better world and a better America. Knowing full well the potential for evil found rooted in the biased discrimination that plagued the civil rights movement during the mid-twentieth century, Griffin embarked on a journey to learn the reality of racial discrimination from the perspective of the black man. Encountering the obvious obstacle of his white skin, Griffin darkened the pigment of his flesh with the medical guidance of a dermatologist and sufficient exposure to a sun lamp. The journey of a white man disguised as a black man is chronicled in the pages of Black Like Me, which is available here.
This book is a must read for anyone willing to confront the wrongs of this world, to believe in the potential good of the human spirit, and to believe in the “unalienable rights” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as colorblind. I believe this is a book that everyone should read at least once. Leaders may want to read this book once a year.
A leader understands the different perspectives of a situation. Great leaders have the ability to grasp the other person’s point of view. There were (and are) many misconceptions in race relations on all sides. It took great leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr, and John Howard Griffin to break through the misconceptions by understanding the other’s point of view.
Enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Bianca Reagan // Jul 28, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I have watched 2 hours and 15 minutes of <i>Black in America</i>, and I find it appalling.
2 Jonathan Frye // Jul 29, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I’ve heard similar complaints that it merely feed into the “stereotype exaggeration” and/or it didn’t even scratch the surface. All I can say at this point is that race relations has been a stumbling block through this nation’s history, but I hope serves to strengthen us toward a better tomorrow rather than weaken the dream of the freedom and America.
3 Jonathan Frye // Aug 3, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I have now finished watching all four hours of CNN Presents: Black in America (The Back Woman & Family and The Black Man). I was disappointed by the documentary as a whole. I believe it barely scratched the surface and was lead astray by cliché.
I know there are still problems with race relations in this country. We still feel the impact of our nation’s history, but we have moved to a moment in time when an individual can take responsibility for their own lot in life and stop blaming outside factors. The problems in the black community are not merely problems because of their race, but rather problems of their own decisions.
The very existence of successful black men and women are testaments to the fact that anyone can succeed in this society regardless of their race. However, problems with well functioning families and successful education systems are the main complications for the disparity of the percentage of successful blacks compared to successful whites. This is the area where leadership can turn the tide. In time, as history has proven in this country, we will progress toward the better; still far from the ideal, but functioning ever closer to it.
Leave a Comment