The African American Experience: Film Analysis

This school term, along with my classmates, I have been required to view a number of documentary films dealing with the African American experience. There was so much information crammed into each of the films shown. However, each one has enlightened and opened my mind to thoughts not before imagined. M.K. Asante has written and directed an excellent film on the founding and growth of a cultural holiday that is celebrated by people of color in the four corners of the earth- Kwanzaa. There were several things that got my attention and have me still pondering over and wondering what are the solutions to what I observed? One was the number of young people, who were asked about black history and black culture, and their answer was basically
Drs. Clark used four dolls, identical except for color, to test children’s racial perceptions. Their subjects, children between the ages of three to seven, were asked to identify both the race of the dolls and which color doll they prefer. A majority of the children preferred the white doll and assigned positive characteristics to it. The Clarks concluded that “prejudice, discrimination, and segregation” created a feeling of inferiority among African-American children and damaged their self-esteem. In a particularly memorable episode while Dr. Clark was conducting experiments in rural Arkansas, he asked a black child which doll was most like him. The child responded by smiling and pointing to the brown doll: "That's a nigger. I'm a nigger." Dr. Clark described this experience "as disturbing, or more disturbing, than the children in Massachusetts who would refuse to answer the question or who would cry and run out of the
It is a clear indication that blacks should not depend upon the white education systems in this country to teach their children about their culture. It also shows that many parents are not culturally educated either, so they cannot teach their children something they do not know. The college student’s “doll test” did not have surprising results to me. We only have to look at our mothers, sisters, wives, and significant others to see the low self-esteem which I believe most black women do not see it that way. Wigs, hair extensions and hair relaxing ‘is what everyone is doing’; do not leave out the ‘tons’ and ‘tons’ of makeup that is sold annually in this country. We, blacks, are using a white standard of ‘beauty’ to define ourselves. From personal experiences of over forty years ago, I attempted to inform coworkers and friends that they should spend their money in the city. I, at that time, did not specifically say with black business, but in the city. For me the ‘handwriting’ was on the wall, business will move to where the money is. Hopefully, with cultural celebration such as Kwanzaa, we blacks will continue to my more strives in gaining not only human and political rights, but gain a more positive self