Black In America Aftermath

The CNN excerpt, “Black in America” opened my eyes a little bit more about being black in modern day America. Some of the statistics that I saw were very surprising, and I was even more surprised that CNN showed all of this on TV. For some reason, I thought some ideas in the excerpt would have been censored, but they didn’t. I mean, 60% of black males don’t have a father figure? I really don’t know how I could live a life that wouldn’t have my dad in it, let alone a father-like figure.
The film made some good points too on how and why some of these statistics may be. I’m also glad that they interviewed black men and women about these, because it was more powerful hearing their response than a white man’s response. Some of the interviews were very powerful, like when they interviewed the guy who was in prison put still wanted to learn. Black males have a hard enough time finding a job as it is, but adding a criminal record could really hold him back and prevent him from getting a job.
I was really surprised how painstakingly hard it is being black in America. I always knew that it wasn’t always daises and bunt cake, but I thought we’ve gotten past the whole, “being black means you are up to no good” thing. Now, that’s not saying that we have also made some dramatic positive changes. Almost quadrupling the graduation rate of black males is very impressive, but there are still many other controversies we need to work with.
In a way, this seems like a “black power” thing. Its not like looking back at history and remembering how hard African American’s worked to get where they are today, and what kind of struggles they had to get through. It’s more like what happened in the past is important, but we also need to focus on today the future. For me, I kind of had a hard time relating to the people’s stories in the excerpt, but I was also willing to keep my ears open to new ways of thinking. It was a new experience of just kind of being drop kicked into this reality that yes, racism is still active, and you are white. It was kind of hard to watch, but I was able to accept the reality of it and think more about it after I watched it.
Mainly what I learned from this excerpt was that we have made some great changes to allow black Americans to be free. Compared to a few decades ago, we have made some dramatic changes in how we view them, but that doesn’t mean that we still have some problems. I learned that racism will always be around, and there will always be an uphill struggle to fight and get rid of it, but it will probably never happen. Its been a very long road for black Americans, and although we are well down the road, we still have a lot of ground to cover.