A Filmmaker's Attempt To Peel Off the Labels

"You sit idly by and watch your media distort your images," says Janks Morton in his documentary about African Americans' misperceptions. (By Pouya Dianat -- The Washington Post)

Morton says he made an unsuccessful effort to contact the NAACP's Julian Bond and activists such as Jesse Jackson, but explains, "I was not going to just chase these folks down. The best way to make a referendum on the issue is to take it to the people."

Richard J. McIntire, national spokesman for the NAACP, says he remembers hearing the jail-college comparison a while back but hasn't seen the latest figures.

"But my general response to the whole idea is, African American males are disproportionately represented in higher education. They are disproportionately represented in jails. There aren't as many African American males receiving higher levels of education, and it is having a direct impact on our community in a number of ways.

"I would dare anyone to say we have enough highly educated black males in America. . . .

"Regardless of the numbers," he says, "we still are not where we need to be, and that causes rifts in our community in a number of ways."

But here's the cold truth about numbers; they can be manipulated, made to support any perspective.

McIntire also notes that even Census Bureau numbers don't reflect as accurate a picture as possible because everyone doesn't participate in the process.

In the film, Morton and others, conservative and liberal, concede there are real difficulties in the black community. "The real, real deal with black people right now -- we have the highest divorce rates, we have the highest over-40-year-old single rates," Morton says on screen. "We have the lowest marriage rates. The highest out-of-wedlock birth rates. What I'm saying to you is . . . one generation ago, we didn't look like this."

As the movie rolled at the recent one-time showing at the Avalon Theatre, there were knowing nods throughout the crowd, as if the movie confirmed theories.

"As black women, we've been led to believe there are no good men, that they are all in jail," Thembelani Smith, 32, an IT project manager, says after the film. "That isn't even true. Sometimes because the messages are imbedded in your head, you are quick to judge. That movie was long overdue. It's good to have these kinds of conversations."