In compiling this publication, we thought it important to have those who use video in different contexts write about their experiences in the field. Screening a tape isn’t hard; initiating and moderating a constructive discussion is more challenging.
With this publication, we hope to encourage teachers, librarians, counselors, affirmative action officers and lay people to organize discussions around race relations and diversity using video as a catalyst. We believe that the experiences of Lauren Kucera and Milton Reynolds (diversity trainers), Debbie Wei (teacher) and Laura Vural and Rachel Castillo (video instructors for young people) will provide useful suggestions for anyone interested in using video to organize such a forum.
Why video? Television shapes our perceptions and opinions of each other. Through nightly news reports and other shows we garner information about other people, cultures and places. Television even shapes our notions of ourselves and informs us about our world. As we become more dependent on this medium, which provides an essentially solitary experience, we engage in less and less public discussion. We no longer have public spaces where people gather to debate ideas and opinions. Nightline, The Jerry Springer Show and Oprah have become acceptable substitutes for public discourse. As a result, we have less opportunity to hear other points of view. Some of our opinions have become based more on misconceptions than informed analysis.
I recently watched a television documentary on PBS about a visit by the Harlem Boy’s Choir to Australia. Upon the choir’s arrival, the Australians, mostly other young men, began mimicking “home boys.” Their knowledge of young black men was limited to the body language and cadence of rap stars. They were regurgitating the images they had been fed.
If the Harlem Boy’s Choir created a film or video about themselves, what would they emphasize? A pair of our writers, Vural and Castillo of Truce: Rise and Shine, a youth development program, deal with issues of self-representation in the media. They convened a group of young people to watch the film Secrets and Lies and talk about race and identity. When asked to define themselves, the young people’s responses were complex and went beyond skin color and cultural influences. Programmers, educators and facilitators can use the films in Viewing Race both to talk about the many ways people define themselves beyond race and skin color, and to talk about the way others define them based on race and skin color.
Kucera and Reynolds, diversity trainers in San Francisco, provide us with a logistical framework within which to conduct forums on race. As diversity trainers working with corporations, nonprofits, agencies and schools, they share their strategies for organizing and moderating screenings and discussions centered on race and difference.
In their articles about youth programming, Vural, Castillo and Wei discuss the need to teach young people how to think and view video critically. These skills involve questioning the film, video or text’s point of view, finding different ways to view an issue and validating personal experience.
The goal of Viewing Race is to couple viewing with discussion. We plan to unwrap the box labeled “race” and examine some of its contents: History (Bridge to Freedom (1965), The Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry), fear (The Color of Fear), privilege (A Question of Color), violence (Who Killed Vincent Chin?, 4 Little Girls), and love (An American Love Story). We hope these videos allow viewers to come away with a better understanding of the differences and similarities between us, ultimately giving depth, context and clarity to the issues surrounding race.