For many people the election of Barack Obama lent credibility to the argument that the United States is moving inexorably, if slowly and in fits and starts, towards a "post-racial" society. This project challenges that assertion.
The Myth of a Post-Racial America
Directed by: Kali Akuno
Sonia Sanchez - On Love and Liberation from Deep Dish TV on Vimeo.
The Myth of a Post-Racial America - Los Angeles Discussion from Deep Dish TV on Vimeo.
Project Orientation and Draft Storyline
“I can’t breathe!” Eric Garner’s final words as he died in a New York policeman’s chokehold.
But it’s not just Eric Garner. Black people throughout the U.S. are choked by political cruelty, death by cop, occupied communities and mass incarceration. At the same time stripped of jobs and education, the means to a decent life --- and blamed as the cause of their own oppression. “No indictments” for the cops who killed Garner and Michael Brown are only the most recent in an extensive and consistent U.S. legal history.
Why? Why does racism and the dehumanization of African-Americans remain such a virulent and seemingly necessary force in the United States?
That is first question we have set out to answer in the new Deep Dish TV series, The Myth of a Post-Racial America. That myth may be a bit tattered at this point. It’s hard to blind oneself to the growing list of young Black men and children killed by the police, to the statistics of massive unemployment among African-Americans and the growing income gap between Blacks and whites. But there are other myths which denigrate grassroots action and Black community self-defense. And tenacious myths that direct people back to the same processes and reformist policy initiatives that promise relief from “up there.” A myth contrary to every indication that government and corporate systems cannot or will not reverse historic and intensifying racism.
How? How can Black communities in the U.S. defend themselves against the deeply ingrained structures of racism? How build collective resistance and unite with people of all ethnicities to root out racism, white supremacy and dismantle the structures that seem to make it so necessary?
That is the second question we’ve set out to explore.
The Myth of a Post-Racial America is a joint project of Deep Dish TV and the Nubia Lumumba Arts and Culture Cooperative of Cooperation Jackson, Mississippi. The first step has been to organize and record Town Hall meetings in New York City, Jackson, Chicago, New Orleans, Baltimore and Oakland. The first three are online on the Deep Dish TV website.
With your financial help we intend t to create a powerful film series that impacts mass awareness and actually contributes to a radical break in how this country functions.
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Myth of a Post-Racial America - Jasiri X Raps//Ferguson and State Violence from Deep Dish TV on Vimeo.
Rapper and activist Jasiri X performs a spoken word piece on the violence in Ferguson as part of The Fire Next Time town hall event on November 14th.
Ferguson and Beyond from Deep Dish TV on Vimeo.
From Ferguson and Beyond, a town hall meeting organized by #BlackLivesMatterNYC, in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn on 12.8.14. The panel included activists from the front lines of Ferguson and organizers fighting against police brutality in New York City.
T-Dubb-O On St. Louis Occupied from Deep Dish TV on Vimeo.
The Fire Next Time: Thenjiwe McHarris from Deep Dish TV on Vimeo.
Thenjiwe McHarris, of US Human Rights Network and Amnesty International, on her experience in Ferguson at The Fire Next Time town hall event on November 14th.
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We are dependent on individual donations to continue this unique production and distribution work. Please donate as generously as you can.We are dependent on individual donations to continue this unique production and distribution work. Please donate as generously as you can.
