This summer, while filming interviews for my documentary, I constantly found myself caught up in the profoundness of what the interviewee said.
One of these profound moments came in my interview with Kirkwood High School Educational Support Counselor, Tom Gaither-Ganim. He started talking about a counseling program he participated in that was designed to promote understanding between races.
Although the context of his experience was in interracial dialogue, the message is applicable in almost any area. “We are all on a personal journey to understanding,” he said.
Although most enlightenment comes from group interaction, we are all on our own, extremely personal journey. Continue Reading »
This week I went to the Milwaukee Art Museum and was fascinated with some of the artwork that was on display. However, I was thinking about one piece of art for a while after I left. It was a piece that was easy to overlook and I almost looked past it myself. And it took me a moment to recognize the implications of the piece of art.
This is the piece of art. At first glance a totem pole. Upon further scrutiny, a strong sociological statement.
Large Totem by American Folk Artist William Dawson. Picture taken at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Do you see the the profound message of this totem pole? Continue Reading »
I’m back after a month long hiatus during which I finished the summer interviews (25 hours of footage) and moved back to Milwaukee to get ready for my Junior year.
I hope to update the blog at least once a week, but I ask that you understand that I am very busy as I am taking 15 credit hours and editing the documentary along with many other smaller obligations.
As I return from hiatus, I’ve decided to change the tone of the blog to be more personal as I originally intended. With this change, the posts I plan to write will be about
Reflections on the interviews
Personal stories while working on the project
How to make a documentary
How to use video as a vehicle to create change
An occasional “academic” post (similar to the early posts)
I hope that you will enjoy the content I have prepared and the original posts are always available if you want to read them again.
Here is an interesting video I saw today titled “Nina Jablonski breaks the illusion of skin color.” She dares to contest Charles Darwin and claims he would agree with her if he was still around today.
I hope you can gain a little insight from this video about why people have different color skin and the significance of these differences.
One of the more perplexing explanations I’ve heard describing how race relations are “strong” or rather not hostile is because “we whites mind our business and them blacks mind their business and we all don’t get in each other’s business – we get along fine.” The last part – we get along fine – is actually not true. There is no “getting along” if there is no interaction.
Peace and equality do not mean you do your thing, I do my thing and we don’t bother each other – This is a social practice of racial segregation that makes us feel “comfortable” or “safe” from people of other races. Although this “comfort” may be desirable, it is used to hide the greater fear of cross-racial interaction, of recognizing the humanity in people regardless of the color of their skin. This illusion of racial “comfort,” or rather racial ignorance, is ultimately a completely unsatisfactory solution to building race relations because it denies everyone their humanity and cripples our ability to grow as a community, as a nation, as a people. Continue Reading »
This summer, while filming interviews for my documentary, I constantly found myself caught up in the profoundness of what the interviewee said.
One of the more perplexing explanations I’ve heard describing how race relations are “strong” or rather not hostile is because “we whites mind our business and them blacks mind their business and we all don’t get in each other’s business – we get along fine.” The last part – we get along fine – is actually not true. There is no “getting along” if there is no interaction.
