Darius Bridges (DB)
(senior, marketing)
Benin Lee (BL)
(senior, political science & Spanish)
What is one of your favorite pieces of media, or mode of media, that are either about or created by African Americans?
DB: I’m gonna go with cinema. You know, I love to read, I love music—I do—but cinema has had such a huge part in my life, not just my life but also in the progression of black people in America overall.
BL: One of my favorite pieces of media created by a black person would be this show I’ve been watching called Living Single. It’s an older show from around the 90s, and it’s just about a group of young black adults living in the city and experiencing adventures together. It’s one of my favorite shows right now, and I’m rewatching it.
What makes you enjoy the aforementioned media?
DB: Whether you are talking movies, television shows, news, video, or anything, the media has been such a big importance, especially in the 60s, when you had Dr. Martin Luther King and all these activists walking across the bridge that got attacked by police officers. This had become such a huge moment in the Civil Rights Movement because that was something that hadn't happened before. You couldn’t see black people getting kicked out of places, you couldn’t see black people get arrested, but to see all of this happening had a really huge affect on the black people and the civil rights overall. Televisions and movies have been such a good catalyst to talk about black issues and to have conversations. Also, it’s really allowed people to understand more and wake up and realize that there are so many experiences in the black community.
BL: I think I like it so much because it shows black people in their normal everyday life without any stereotypes, and I think that it is really important to show black people living their lives as not always a sad thing or a referent to the civil rights or slavery. Not to say that it avoids black issues, but I think it highlights the dynamics of black people when we get together since the Living Single characters are young people living in the city and adventuring while still being true to the black culture.
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