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Sabiana
Regular Poster
Username: Sabiana
Post Number: 199
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 19, 2007 - 07:11 am: | 
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Sabiana- It would have been nice if he would have included black women also, however.
"I'm worried about us and what we think about ourselves," says Janks Morton, whose movie "What Black Men Think," addresses stereotypes of black men.
Filmmaker tries to debunk labels of black men
By DeNeen L. Brown
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Quick. Pop quiz. And no cheating.
Are there more black men in college or in jail?
Janks Morton, a new movie director, is willing to bet you got the wrong answer. Although he thinks the very nature of the question is an "abomination," he wonders: Would that same question be asked so often of any other race in America? The very premise of the question, he said, leads to faulty science. But the question is insidious, like the images that have seeped into the public psyche so deep that many black people themselves don't get the answer right.
Morton poses the question while sitting in a restaurant seven hours before his movie, "What Black Men Think," premieres in Washington, D.C.
He turns to three black men at a table behind him.
"Quick question: Are there more black men in college or in jail?"
Man in green shirt: "Jail."
Man in brown shirt: "Jail."
Man in blue shirt. "Jail."
Morton calls over the waiter: "Hey, R.J.! Are there more black men in college or in jail?"
The waiter ponders the question, turning it as if he were inspecting a utensil. "I believe ... in jail."
Morton: "Now let's ask some women."
Woman in pink pearls: "I don't know. I would say jail."
Wrong, wrong, wrong, Morton said. There are more black men in college than in jail.
In 2005, according to the Census Bureau, 864,000 black men were in college. According to Justice Department statistics, 802,000 were in federal and state prisons and jails, Morton said.
Between the ages of 18 and 24, black men in college outnumber those incarcerated by 4 to 1.
Still, the idea that the opposite is true stems from an image that has been perpetuated, Morton said, by the government, the media and the black leadership.
"I'm worried about us and what we think about ourselves," he said.
That is the point of Morton's documentary, which was released on DVD last week. The film, which cost him $7,000 to produce, explores the stereotypes and statistics that label black men, families, women and children. "This project, top to bottom, is all me," Morton said. "With the new digital capacity, we have an ability to drive demand without relying on other people. I assembled, I edited, scored the whole thing in my house. That wasn't feasible five years ago."
The film sets out to debunk stereotypes that he said have been perpetuated for so many years that they have struck the black community to its core. Stereotypes that have insulted, demoralized and humiliated. That have left others intimidated by black boys and black men.
The "docu-logue" is in a style akin to Michael Moore's, with interviews of black intellectuals. It's infused with graphics, historical footage of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and provocative moments, such as black women calling black men dogs.
Morton appears on screen in dark shades, "Matrix"-like. "More than one hundred years ago," he said, "Harriet Tubman was quoted as saying: 'If I could have convinced more slaves they truly were slaves, I could have freed thousands more.' "
At another point, the screen rolls up, rolls down, deliberately out of focus. Morton said, "How could you have bought into the false castigations that keep you from one another?
"You sit idly by and watch your media distort your images. You know that the government stratifies you. You know that the black leadership exploits you, and you choose to do nothing."
Morton, 43, said he graduated from Bowie State University, earning a degree in business and industrial psychology. For at least a decade, he worked in the entertainment industry, including with Ginuwine and Boyz II Men. He owned a record label, learned to stage, film and edit music videos.
Then, fed up with the industry, he quit.
"I didn't pick up the camera again until 2005," he said.
"One night, I was watching TV. It was one of those debates on Fox. A statistic came out: 70 percent of black children are born out of wedlock. That blew my socks off. ... I went to the Census Bureau and found it was true."
He wondered what happened to the community.
The film includes interviews with intellectuals and others, including journalists Earl Ofari Hutchinson and Juan Williams, activist Jesse Lee Peterson, authors Shelby Steele and Steve Perry, columnists Armstrong Williams and Darryl James, scholar John McWhorter, actor Joseph C. Phillips, professors Alvin Poussaint and Kellina Craig-Henderson, and commentator Mychal Massie.
Though many of those interviewed have been called conservative, Morton said that he tried to talk with people across the political spectrum.
Morton said he made an unsuccessful effort to contact the NAACP's Julian Bond and activists such as Jesse Jackson, but explains: "I was not going to just chase these folks down. The best way to make a referendum on the issue is to take it to the people."
Richard McIntire, national spokesman for the NAACP, said he remembers hearing the jail-college comparison but hasn't seen the latest figures.
"But my general response to the whole idea is, African-American males are disproportionately represented in higher education. They are disproportionately represented in jails. There aren't as many African-American males receiving higher levels of education, and it is having a direct impact on our community in a number of ways," he said. "I would dare anyone to say we have enough highly educated black males in America.
"Regardless of the numbers," he said, "we still are not where we need to be, and that causes rifts in our community in a number of ways."
In the film, Morton and others concede there are real difficulties in the black community. "The real, real deal with black people right now — we have the highest divorce rates, we have the highest over-40-year-old single rates," Morton said on screen. "We have the lowest marriage rates. The highest out-of-wedlock birth rates. What I'm saying to you is ... one generation ago, we didn't look like this."
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
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Moonsigns
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Moonsigns
Post Number: 2002
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 - 02:21 pm: |
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Just as I think it wouldn't be wrong for him to do a film about black women and certain stereotypes, I don't find anything wrong with him exploring the issues, both past and present, that encourage society's stereotypical view of black men. I happen to find it respectful when a man is insightful - and courageous - enough to publicly address problems such as this.
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Troy
Veteran Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 775
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - 09:13 am: |
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We published a review of this movie:
http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/what_black_men_think.htm
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9676
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 08:41 am: |
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I saw Janks Morton on CSPAN II’s Q&A program discussing his (self-styled) doculogue What Black Men Think. He appeared to provide an objective and sober approach to pondering the troubles between Black men and women.
Janks drew a relevant comparison between Harriet Tubman’s +100 year claims that she could have free 1,000’s more Blacks if she could have convinced them they were slaves and how we are now mentally and emotionally enslaved into fearing, resenting and blaming each other.
Also highlighted during Morton’s interview was the danger of Black foks being angry. How our anger is used by others to control and to manipulate us. For instance, Hanks asserted the anger behind the Don Imus flap was a waste of our time and energy.
Moreover, Hanks asserts we focus too much on certain verbiage (e.g., ho, ni&&er, b*tch, etc.) that distracts us from more relevant, pressing issues.
And Hanks asserts we must recognize and bolster more of other aspects of our lives and history.
Still. I think what’s often missing from these debates and discussion of how you raise Black men and women to respect, appreciate and build good families together WITHOUT requiring their MARRYING.
Men and women have some fundamentally different inclinations and experiences. And those differences must be mutually understood, appreciated and reconciled. But how do you teach such to children when mommy’s here and daddy’s across town, usually with another woman and another man (or men) children?
As long as there is no serious, long-term commitment amongst our core, foundational relationship, man and woman, everything else will continue to unravel and erode.
One of the questions Hanks asked common Black foks during his film addressed the very popular perception there are more Black men in jail than college. Of course, most declared (quite emphatically) there were more brothas behind bars than behind collegiate desks.
(Sadly, the younger foks seemed much assured of there being more Black male prisoners than scholars.)
Funny. But I watched the response to that question I could how thinking have most of these foks themselves even been in or near many colleges and universities to have any meaningful perception of the degree to which Black men are in academe.
Then Janks presented the following:
Black men in US prisons & jails in 2005, per the US Department of Justice – 821,995
Black men in US colleges & universities in 2005, per the US Department of Education – 864,000
And when you limit these statistics to Black men ages 18 – 24, the ratio of Black male college students to that of prisoners is +4:1 (473,000 to 106,000).
The moral of the story here: Perception often is NOT reality.
And the logical question to follow: So then, WHY are we being made to believe Black men are more likely to be locked up than studying?
PS: What’s interesting is famed liberal Black figures like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Julian Bond declined to participate in Hank’s projects. Yet Black foks on the other side of the political fence like Juan William, Shelby Steele and John McWhorter participated. |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2203
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 10:56 am: |
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Yes, ABM, I have also heard about this common misperception. (It reminds me of a "fact" women's advocates were using for years: that more women in the US are abused on Superbowl Sunday than any other day of the year. Apparently this is false.)
Actually, the numbers cited above are a little misleading. When you add in the number of Black men who are involved in the criminal justic system--not just currently in jail/prison, but awaiting trial on bail or on parole, then the prison number is significantly higher. And on many (most, even?) co-ed college campuses there are more women than men (not just Black).
But there do seem to be many people who are more than willing to promote myths like the Black men in prison/college, or that Black kids do more drugs than White kids, or that young Black people are the largest consumers of hip-hop, or any number of other perceptions. These beliefs must be serving some purpose for someone. But I think they mainly keep the majority of Black people in a state of just shaking our heads and losing hope. |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2204
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 10:59 am: |
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Sabiana, regarding your lament about the focus on Black men instead of including women, Spike Lee used to have a response for people complaining that his films didn't do this or address that. He'd say something like: "That sounds like a good idea--you should make that film. I made my film..." I do hear you. But I think there is more than enough room for each person to choose their own focus and not try to do it all. |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2205
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 11:00 am: |
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What’s interesting is famed liberal Black figures like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Julian Bond declined to participate in Hank’s projects.
Yes. Hmmm. Maybe I am reading too much into their lack of participation. (I am sure they are busy men.) But I can't help but think of my assertion that these myths serve a purpose for some people... |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9678
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 11:13 am: |
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Well, in this day of the quick fix, it's all about sound bytes and catch phrases and buzz words and leaders who tout simple solutions to complicated problems. The thing is, is if we say things are not a bad as they are portrayed, then folks might get complacent, especially white ones. It's a dilemma. And, personally, I am not impressed that 864,000 black males are in college and ONLY 821,995 are in prison. That's 800,000 too many young blacks behind walls. |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2207
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 11:20 am: |
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Cynique, I didn't get the impression the filmmaker was celebrating that "only" x-number of Black men are in prison or anything. I agree with you: whatever the prison number, it is too high; whatever the college number, it is too low. I'd rather, though, that we be honest with our statistics and work to eliminate complacency than deal in fudged figures in order to make a point. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9680
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 11:28 am: |
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True. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9678
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 01:05 pm: |
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Yvettep,
I agree there are many more brothas who are somehow embroiled in the legal than can be directly tied to who who's lockup at any one point in time. I haven't seen Morton's film in it's entirety. So, perhaps, he mentions that within it.
And I agree there overall are more females in American colleges/universities than there ae males. But the problem with conflating or equating our sex-based collegiate disparities with those of others is that other men, especially White (and Hispanic) men, is that many of them have been able to garner many more opportunities to succeed sans college degrees than their Black peers.
Also, those disparities are still much smaller amongst others than they are us Black foks.
Do foks intentionally lie and/or omit relevant truths to control, manipulate, weaken and dishearten Black foks? I don't know.
DO the lies and ommission control, manipulate, weaken and dishearten Black foks? Yep. |
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