Ethnography

Question Bridge: Black Males

        The Reginald F. Lewis museum is dedicated to exhibit, document and preserve the unique and credible artwork of the African American community residing in Maryland. Since this was my first time at the museum, I was curious to learn about the person behind the name of the museum, Reginald F. Lewis. Astonishingly. Reginald F. Lewis, a Baltimore native, was a renowned Wall street Lawyer who was also the first African American to form his own law firm at Wall Street. He merged several companies and by the end of his career, he was an international businessman with a multibillion dollar company with offices in New York and Paris. During his life, he was appreciative of art and culture promoted by the African American community and wished to form a museum to preserve this art. After his death, the Reginald F. Lewis foundation formed after his legacy, funded the formation of this museum to display and promote the art of the African American community.

        At the museum, the screening of “Question Bridge: Black Males” was one of the many exhibitions taking place. Amongst the crowd were people of various age group and people belonging to many different races. Before the screening of this documentary started, my perception was that this documentary was basically a question and answer session with Black Males. To my surprise, it was something completely different. It turns out, it is a documentary based on the stereotype that an African American man is irresponsible and wanted to highlight the issue to improve the role of the African American man in our society. The format of this document was rather unusual. The questions were asked and answered by the African American males themselves that made, both the questions and the answers, unbiased and completely void of any prejudice to be in place.

        Towards the beginning of the movie, a statement made by an elderly gentleman really caught my attention. When the question was asked by another gentleman that’s stated “What is common to all of us that makes us who we are?”. To this, the gentleman replied: “There is one thing that African American men all have in common, and that is the perception of them by the white community. That perception is that you are not a man, you are less than a man, at most you are three-fifths of a man. And you are not to be respected as you have no right to be respected in the dominant white society.” This statement was further countered by many others by saying that a Black man is what he portrays himself to be instead of what society perceives of him. If a man does not respect himself or fulfill his responsibilities, then society is more than likely to label his whole kind as defaulted.