Going back to our roots

One thing that I've noticed about African Americans is that on the whole, we don't see ourselves as African. Of course we recognize our African ancestry but do we really identify ourselves as Africans in America? I remember as a kid, being called African was an insult! " You African booty scratcher" they would say. So, how proud are we really of being African? It seems that our ignorance to our specific tribes and countries gives us an out, an excuse, to forget our past and establish our own cultural identity as Blacks in America. In fact, very few Black people ever travel to Africa or even want to take the trip.

In middle school I was introduced to a movie called "Sankofa" by my social studies teacher Mrs. Springfield. She is African American and tried to instill in her students a sense of pride about our Heritage, and encouraged us to learn our history which she stressed is more than slavery and the civil rights movement. This independent film addresses African Americans avoidance of our rich yet painful African history. This movie depicts a young woman (in the late 80's/early90's) at a photo shoot on the Ivory Coast, at an old slave trading post (Elmina Castle). It appears that she is enjoying being photographed but she also seems to be spooked by the dark past of this old castle. I don't want to give away too much because I want you all to watch the film. One big hint is that "Sankofa" is an Akan word which means " One must return to the past in order to move forward".

I have posted part 1 of the movie below. It is in sections (pt. 1,2,3). I hope that you enjoy the movie and please comment! When you are finished viewing the first installement go to youtube.com then in the search engine type in " the movie/sankofa/pt.2".

Ya Basta,
Malcolm

An Excellent resource on understanding the plight of African American women

My AP Psych teacher Mrs. Nelsen showed us a video called "A girl like me" which is a short documentary that delves into the lives of African American girls and their self perception. I go to a school that is predominantly White and after the movie many of my White classmates were touched by the documentary and its candidness about Black issues such as skin tone and hair. The part of the movie that was very hard to watch was when they replicated a study from the 1950's in which Black children were asked if they wanted to play with the Black Doll or the White doll. In all honesty it was harder to watch in the midst of Whites because I didn't want them to misinterpret why the children chose the White doll. It seemed that many of my classmates interpreted it as "Oh my God, those poor kids don't love themselves". The truth is that we do love who we are but from birth TV, movies, magazines and society in general conditioned us to believe that White is beautiful and Black is not. The problem is that this conditioning is subliminal and does not seem wrong. One perfect example (of many) is the popular cartoon Bugs Bunny, in which the villain (Daffy Duck) is a black, big lipped, spitting angry duck. Children learn by association and black girls only have lily white Cinderella and Sleeping beauty to base their interpretation of beauty. I love this video because it offers insight to Black women's struggle. It also answers many questions that people feel uncomfortable asking about Black culture. I have posted the video at the bottom of the page. I hope that you will be impacted the documentary as much as I was.

Ya Basta,
Malcolm

A new way to see diversity

Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought " I wonder what I would look like as a different race". I always considered myself to be a person who appreciates the differences in cultures but seeing yourself as a different race really shows you that we really are more similar than we think. Seeing yourself as a different race speaks to African Americans in particular because we are more mixed than we realize. When I saw my picture as a person of full African descent I said "Wow". I thought I would look the same but I look more black. lol. But I wanted to share this with everyone because I think that we can all learn something from it and enjoy looking at the pictures as well. A few of them are actually quite comical. I posted my pictures from my face averages so you all can see how it works. I have to admit that I like my face better more black! I will be taking a poll to see which race you like better ( of your OWN face). The website is really easy to use and completely free. I will continue to post new interesting things as I come across them. Please take advantage of this website; it's really interesting! http://www.faceresearch.org/ Enjoy!