CNN Presents Black In America: www.cnn.com/blackinamerica
Black Women & Family - Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 @ 9 PM ET/PT
Black Men - Thursday, July 24th, 2008 @ 9 PM ET/PT
"The Myths. The Facts. The Stereotypes. The Realities Of Being Black In America."
Last night I attended an advanced screening of "CNN Presents Black In America Reported By Soledad O'Brien" presented by Comcast, and hosted at the Landmark E Street Theatre in Washington, D.C.
It was great to see not only a packed house on a weeknight, but to see so many young, 20-something and 30-something, African-American professionals and students dressed in their business suits, carrying their laptops and briefcase attaches, coming directly from their jobs, careers, internships via Capitol Hill and downtown DC, and several area universities.
Who came? It was everyone from the Black Enterprise Magazine crowd, to the Pan-Africanist crowd, to everyone in between. Black Republicans, Black Democrats, Black Independents, The Undecided, The NAACP crowd, The Congressional Black Caucus crowd, Black fraternities, Black sororities, Young, Middle-Aged, Parents, Brothers, Sisters, Co-Workers, People Swinging By After Work To See What's Up. From Georgia Avenue to 16th Street AKA The Gold Coast, NW to SW to NE to SE. Everyone who heard of the event, received the invite and came and was concerned. Also, a lot of African-American college students from various states working in D.C. for the summer. It was great to see so much diversity all coming together to check this out.
Before the program started, the conversations and networking in line and in the audience was so good it reminded me of some workshops I attended at Howard University in the late 80s. The Q and A afterwards was so spirited that it proved that yes, African-American young folks are very aware and very concerned about our images and the negative images we see on TV and Cable daily.
We met a representative of Liquid Soul Media, the production company that produced the series, Johnita Due, Senior Counsel and Diversity Council Chair for CNN, and Mark Nelson, Vice President and Senior Executive Producer of CNN Productions.
There was a brief intro by the Liquid Soul Media representative followed by a 25 to 30 minute preview of the series.
Some of the areas the documentary covers are: Health, HIV, Race, Economics, Media, Rap & Hip Hop, Family, Politics, Women in Education, Professions, and more.
From what I gathered from the panel discussion afterwards, the producers of this series attempted to go deeper into these areas than other documentaries have and also have taken the proactive stance of "Now, what are we going to do about it?" which is an excellent question.
They also mentioned there is a website called www.ireport.com where viewers can go and ask questions about the program, offer solutions, leave comments, etc about the program and the issues, including what areas do you think CNN missed covering in this program or what could have been done or shown better.
From the 25 to 30 minutes we were shown, it was hard to say what they may have missed, or what else could have been included, or if it was as balanced as it should be, but it did look like they made the attempt to go wider in the variety and accuracy in taking a look at all aspects of us as a people.
That was a big concern from the audience - we have been misrepresented so often that it is of utmost importance that if you are going to do another documentary on us - this time - please - get it right! We are not one monolithic group that agrees on every topic and issue!
Another concern that was shared via the audience during the Q & A was how is it possible to do a documentary on being black in America when we are such a diverse group of people and everybody has a different story to tell? Another great question.
Other questions from the audience included:
"Why are you showing this now in a year where it looks like we are about to get the nation's first Black President?"
"How did you all decide who you were going to interview and why?"
"What made you pick the people you did?"
"What brainstorming sessions went on behind the scenes that made you come up with this?"
"Was your panel or group that put this together as diverse as is America and Black America?"
"Did you consider doing Africans and people of color that are from other countries all over the world who have now moved to America and experience racism within our own Black Communities?"
Mr. Nelson informed us that in the cable news business - human stories, good stories, have a hard time generating revenue from the advertisers yet bad stories that include dirt and negative images sell, sell, sell. So they had to break this down to 4 hours. He also informed us that CNN began working on this documentary a year before Barack announced his presidency and they were really doing it as a 1968 to 2008 - 40 Years Since Civil Rights And The Assassination of Dr. King type of piece and it just kept growing into what it is now.
He also mentioned that CNN focused on African-Americans because unlike recent immigrants, we were brought here against our will. Bought. Sold into slavery. So in essence, he pointed out that we share a very unique relationship with the United States unlike other more recent groups and maybe there is a way to look at what factors slavery and that experience had on us and may contribute to our problems today. I thought that was an excellent point that is rarely brought out publicly.
The CNN folks told us that they have heard many of our questions at almost every screening and what they tried to do was pick the stories that were the most interesting and that showed the most diversity of African Americans in the U.S.A. abroad though they knew full well that it would be impossible to tell every story and experience in 4 hours.
Another aspect that was interesting to hear from Johnita Due was the fight and the struggle to convince the higher ups at CNN that this documentary needed to be done.
These are some of the same folks who pushed CNN to cover the whole JENA 6 situation, so Kudos to the brothers and sisters at CNN that pushed to make both of these stories get coverage.
We have all seen the stories about how bad life is for us as African-Americans (the statistics they seem to churn out daily, weekly, monthly and yearly) living in America and I am aware that is a part of the reality pie for some, but it is not the whole pie of who we are as a people. There are so many success stories. Some we read about every so often. Most of the time they go unreported. We need balance. We also should see the stories that are uplifting and inspiring.
I think that it will be interesting to read, hear and see what Black America thinks of this documentary after it airs on July 23rd and 24th.
Peace!
~LT
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