‘Black Men’ doc fact-checks malicious myths

Kam Williams

Harriet Tubman once wistfully reflected, “If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I could have freed thousands more.” The spirit of that telling quote has been resurrected by filmmaker Janks Morton, hoping to shake another generation of African Americans out of the doldrums.

Morton employs Tubman’s adage during his prefatory remarks to “What Black Men Think,” a thought-provoking documentary that he produced, directed and periodically appears in, serving as a narrator, a commentator and an interviewer. The picture paints an enlightening and empathetic portrait of African American males by employing some surprising raw statistics to suggest that we all reconsider some commonly held beliefs about black men.

Relying on readily available government data, a pointer-wielding Morton uses graphs, charts and a chalkboard to debunk a litany of popular stereotypes, including the notions that there are more black men in prison than in college, that most don’t graduate from high school and that most don’t pay child support.

Not only does director Morton expose these widely disseminated ideas as fallacious, but he also suggests that, left unchallenged, they have the ability to do an incalculable amount of damage to impressionable young minds.

When not busy busting such misleading myths, Morton conducts a series of compelling tête-à-têtes with an array of leading intellectuals. Among the many luminaries who appear on screen are Dr. Shelby Steele, Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, publisher/author/filmmaker Darryl James, Dr. John McWhorter, actor-turned-author and commentator Joseph C. Phillips, Fox News contributor Juan Williams, author and Connecticut high school principal Steve Perry, Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Alvin Poussaint, syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams, Dr. Kellina Craig-Henderson, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and outspoken political pundit Mychal Massie.

A cursory glance at that list confirms that most of the individuals involved are known for taking conservative stances. But while more left-leaning viewers might brace themselves for the “blame the victim” screeds that many of the interview subjects launch into while guests of right-wing talk show hosts, in this format the commentators are afforded the opportunity to fully expound on their hopes and aspirations for black men, rather than being restricted to hot button issues and 10-second sound bites.

In this looser format, each of these elders shares some worthwhile advice, covering timely topics such as the Don Imus debacle, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the use of the n-word, black-on-black crime, the perils of conspicuous consumption, academic underachievement, “acting white,” the “down low” phenomenon and the legitimacy of Bill Cosby’s comments.

Guaranteed to generate quality conversation about the direction of African Americana, “What Black Men Think” provides an excellent alternative to the mainstream propaganda that would have us internalize the worst beliefs about an unfairly maligned segment of society. Perhaps more importantly, this groundbreaking documentary ought to serve as an overdue wake-up call for young African American males to take Harriet Tubman’s words to heart and assume responsibility for reprogramming their own minds in a positive manner — rather than voluntarily internalizing a self-defeating mentality that is tantamount to the 21st-century equivalent of slavery.

Three cheers to Janks Morton for making a film that constructively employs a marginalized segment of the black intelligentsia as a valuable resource. Though often scorned as traitors by their more liberal colleagues, in this instance they are presented as well-meaning role models with viable proposals for their people, not just unwitting pawns of a power structure only interested in maintaining the status quo.