The majority of my students are African American. Some of whom have low self-esteem and expectations because they are unaware of the richness of their heritage. For far too many, students the magnitude of the rich contributions made to this country by African Americans remain unknown. Recently, I overheard someone of African-American decent say (quite in passing), “The only thing I knew about black people, until I went to college, was slavery.”
I don’t want
any
of my students (European-American, Asian-American, Latin-American or African American) to leave my class with such a limited view of the world or a group of people who has contributed so much to it. For this reason I chose to focus on African-American filmmakers and their struggle first to tell their stories and then to get someone to listen.