Group Project

I am really excited to be doing a project like this because I believe that through effective communication anything can be done or changed. Our project is the viewing of the film , "A Different Kind of Black Man". We decided our audience would be educated, opinionated , black men who would typically be perceived as straight, stand up men in their community, and discuss masculinity in the black male community and masculinity in the black gay male community. We wanted there to be a visible, non-difference between the two as it pertains to masculinity. Because the basis of the argument would be all men want to be, is men, in their community, in their families , at their jobs and anywhere else in society. Besides showing the video which includes older black men, we also wanted to kind of hit close to home with the gentlemen that we would be speaking with, therefore we invited two open gay black male speakers who are well known around the campus to tell their story and their struggle to portray masculinity and still be comfortable with themselves in their community. One young man is well known, but he is not out to everyone yet. The fact that he wanted to speak on this matter was a shock to me and my group because like I stated he is well known and we wanted to avoid any targeting of one individual or him just being uncomfortable after his discussion. However, he and the other young man was very willing because they stated they had been wanting to have this discussion for some time now and they feel that this would be the best time. A controlled environment, an honest but respectable environment, and an environment that includes many of their friends. Even though, we have had a minor setback with our original group of men, I have a wonderful diligent group to work with so our event will take place next Wednesday and I know we will have a successful discussion. Since we know this is sort of a sensitive topic we came up with ideas to make the conversation fun, interactive and ongoing. So, hopefully we have just as well a turn-out as we would have had from our original group. I am very excited and interested on where this discussion will take us.

Boys of Baraka

After watching the film "Boys of Baraka" I felt hurt and shocked. Like I mentioned in class I feel like the system let them down twice, I mean just seeing the look on their faces and the hopelessness they had once they got word that the school closed down was heartbreaking. I believe that yeh the school succeeded in temporarely placing them in a new environment, reminding them that they were kids, and providing them with individual attention; however, it failed to teach them survival techniques and how to cope with the daily stress that they see in their community in a positive way. Not the survival techniques that they learn back home which is fight, shoot, and violence is the key, but enhancing their ability to unite with positive people, talk out their problems, work through their problems and teaching them that their environment does not dictate their life. The school system failed in also not setting up something for the children back home, even in the summer time , to continue to stay in touch and learn. My question would also be Why Kenya? and another would be where were the african american teachers? Even though there were african teachers at the school the majority of the teachers were white,which is not a huge issue if they were willing to be there for the kids, however the kids still had no one to relate to that could show them , "Hey I come from where you come from and we can all make it out together." I feel like they took the boys out of one environment and put them in another that only taught them how to displace their anger, their anxiety and their feelings. Individually I believe the young men were confused when they came back. The school also missed the mark in making that connection of when they went back home. Even though some of the young men continue to succeed what happened to the majority of the others that were not exactly in the forefront of the film? In school, I was also the smart one, but I was never teased for "acting white" or "not being black enough". So I can't personally can't relate to "acting white" article. My school was predominately african american all through my years growing up and I remember talking to everyone. I was always outgoing. Only thing that I remember used to make me so upset, I just thought was pure ignorance, was in middle school there was one young lady that used to always say, " I wanna marry a white guy because I don't want dark babies; black babies ain't cute." That statement used to make so mad. Although I struggled with self-esteem issues growing up I never was ashamed of who I was and I remember always thinking it's sad that she does not like herself that much to reproduce such a beautiful race of people. Today, now that I know what I know, that statement makes more sense to me .