Looking at Black America, Eyes Fixed on the Future

Looking at Black America, Eyes Fixed on the Future

By NEIL GENZLINGER
Published: July 21, 2009
The first half of “Black in America 2,” a two-night special on Wednesday and Thursday on CNN, begins with a segment in which Soledad O’Brien, the reporter for the series, admonishes some boys in Bushwick, Brooklyn, who ignore their academics to play basketball all day.

Good; the unrealistic dream of pro ball as the ticket out of poverty needs to be knocked down. Of course, Ms. O’Brien’s scolding would be more convincing if the next night’s episode did not included a lengthy piece about Tyler Perry. So, kids, let’s review: Don’t aspire to play pro basketball; you’ll never make it. Instead count on becoming a movie star/entertainment mogul.
So it goes in this skim-the-surface program, a follow-up to “Black in America” last year. Wednesday’s installment is devoted to “Tomorrow’s Leaders” and Thursday’s to “Today’s Pioneers,” but both are essentially collections of upbeat features, anecdotes without much analysis as to whether these piecemeal efforts are making a long-term difference. The message to viewers is, in effect: “See? Someone in California is helping inmates transition back into the workforce when they’re released, and Chris Rock’s wife is taking those Brooklyn kids on a trip to South Africa to broaden their perspective. So everything’s O.K. in black America.”

Not that the initiatives Ms. O’Brien spotlights aren’t worthy. Mr. Rock’s wife, Malaak Compton-Rock, certainly did a fine thing last year by taking 30 Bushwick youngsters to South Africa and turning the tables on them: instead of being on the receiving end of assistance, they were on the giving end, visiting families affected by AIDS. But Ms. O’Brien undercuts any heft this and other segments might build up by shamelessly injecting herself into the proceedings. Do we really need to see her having a heart-to-heart with one of the Bushwick children and personally wiping the girl’s tears?

The creep of this kind of it’s-really-about-me journalism appears to be inexorable, but it costs “Black in America 2” some credibility. So does Ms. O’Brien’s interviewing. It used to be that the old reporter’s trick of leading interview subjects to say what you want them to say would be disguised by deft editing. Not here, as we see in a segment in which Ms. O’Brien talks to Everett Highbaugh about a client in his inmate-assistance program in Oakland, Calif., who is in danger of backsliding:
Ms. O’Brien: “He doesn’t have a tight plan.”
Mr. Highbaugh: “He doesn’t have a real tight plan.”
Ms. O’Brien: “And that worries you.”
Mr. Highbaugh: “And that worries me.”
Ms. O’Brien: “He’s got a general, vague plan.”
Mr. Highbaugh: “A general, vague plan. That just worries me.”
So come to this program for some heartening examples of people who are responsible for relatively small efforts against big problems. But expect only one revelation: that the “Black in America” concept needs to be put out of its misery. When poor urban children are crammed under the same umbrella as rich debutantes, as they are here, it’s a good sign that you have an artificial construct. Being black, or anything else, in America is far more complicated than one demographic characteristic.

BLACK IN AMERICA 2
CNN, Wednesday night at 9, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time. Thursday night at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.
Produced by CNN Productions. Soledad O’Brien, anchor and special correspondent; Mark Nelson, vice president and senior executive producer; Jeffery Reid, executive producer; Jody Gottlieb, executive director.


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A journey for change

A journey for change





Program Note: In CNN’s Black in America 2, Soledad O’Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Wednesday, July 22 at 9 p.m. and Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m..

Soledad O’Brien jokes with several of the Journey for Change participants. Left to right: Steven Pallares, Zuliana Burnett, Sayris Pallares, Sadara Lewis, Queen Clyde, Mariah Ralph, Soledad O’Brien, Imaan Williams, Yolaine Calixte, Jenee Lawson, Sydney Smart, Daisa Carr. Joshua Hall on the floor.
Soledad O’BrienCNN Anchor and Special Correspondent
Over the past year, 30 kids from the Bushwick Salvation Army Community Center have traveled to South African shantytowns, hosted a car wash to raise money for a burn victim, helped rebuild around New Orleans and cleaned up on the streets of Brooklyn.
They are all a part of Journey for Change, a group started by Malaak Compton-Rock to empower children who are growing up in neighborhoods rife with crime and poverty. Malaak, an activist who also happens to be the wife of comedian Chris Rock, believes these kids often limit their dreams. Her dream is to turn them into global citizens who believe in themselves and think big!
I traveled with these amazing young people, ages 12 to 16, eight thousand miles to Johannesburg, South Africa, and I have watched them as they changed and grew as a result of the experience. Their year-long journey will be a part of Black in America 2 on CNN July 22 at 9p and July 23 at 8p. We also continue to post additional material from the trip at CNN.com/BlackinAmerica. Below are blogs from three of the children: Imaan, Joshua and Sydney. I asked them to explain how the South African trip changed them.
Imaan Williams, 12
The trip to South Africa has changed my whole life. I see things in a different way than I did before. Before I went to South Africa I would think everything should be about me and nobody else. I had my moments where I would think to myself, and say in my head, ‘why did God put me on this earth and if it is supposed to make me feel like nothing.’ Then, I was taken on the trip to South Africa and my whole opinion of life changed. I realized God did have a plan for me and it was a good one too. The trip showed me that even though life has its ups and downs, you have to keep on moving on. I saw kids less fortunate than me and I had all these emotions running through me: SAD, MAD, HAPPY, ANGRY, JOYFUL, and most of all PRIVILEGED. God has truly blessed me with this opportunity and I hope another one comes soon. Peace and Love.
Joshua Hall, 15
Journey for Change has changed my life in so many ways. I have had the opportunity to serve others globally and here at home. It’s interesting to see what we consider as a need is a luxury in other parts of the world. I had the opportunity to go to South Africa and I was overwhelmed with the needs of so many people. I realized that we take a lot of things for granted: clean running water, a toothbrush, toilet paper, and even my own room! It was a real “eye opener,” and so hard to leave knowing there was so much more that needs to be done.
As Journey for Change Global Ambassadors our year of service took us to South Africa for two weeks of service, New Orleans to help build a new home for a Hurricane Katrina victims, the U.S. House of Representatives to meet with Rep. Maxine Waters, the United Nations to see how humanitarian efforts are being handled globally, a visit to CNN to see first hand how things were handled behind the scenes, college tours to Morehouse College, Howard University and much more. None of this would have been possible without Ms. Malaak Compton-Rock (‘Auntie’). I am grateful for the love and time she spends with us. She always tells us “service is the rent we pay for living”.
It truly has been a journey that changed me!!
Sydney Smart, 13
The Journey for Change trip to South Africa has empowered me to make better decisions for my life. Before I joined the program, my behavior was very selfish and ungrateful, but after those two amazing weeks in South Africa my world was turned upside down and I have improved. When I saw the horrific ways people lived in Diepsloot and Soweto, I was shocked. Many families didn’t have food and couldn’t afford their medical expenses. And a lot of kids were abandoned because their mothers died of AIDS and that was so sad. But to see how happy their faces were to see us because they knew we cared, changed all of my perspectives on: God, life and love and my whole Journey for Change.After that life-changing trip, I have been volunteering a lot for the community and I have a better attitude toward decision making, school, and family.

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