A new documentary called Black Boys tries to humanize children who often are seen as dangerous, writes teacher Kelisa Wing on Education Post. “This film shows the many facets of our Black men and boys as fathers, sons, cousins, friends, dreamers, lovers, poets, deep thinkers, prolific, gifted, beautiful.”
Her nephew “went to college on a full academic scholarship, but one wrong move, a simple misjudgment to post himself on social media with a firearm, landed him in jail at 19,” Wing writes.
This one mistake led to the loss of his scholarship, loss of college education, and a loss of societal acceptance. . . . Like my nephew, there are so many Black boys out there who do not get to make a mistake, who do not get to have society’s benefit of the doubt — especially when they encounter law enforcement.
Black boys don’t need white saviors, writes Jay Wamstead, who teaches math to black and brown high school students in Atlanta. They need “believers.”
Wamstead, who’s white, fears the film will inspire whites to “performative allyship” on social media rather than a commitment to finding out more about complex problems. “Don’t watch Black Boys and be inspired to go fix this or that community in your city,” he tells white readers.