Customer Reviews

CNN Presents: Black in America

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Soledad O'Brien does a great job of sharing the Hard Truth on the state of Black America. Although the documentary merely skims the surface on a number of important topics, it provides a great opportunity to start discussions on topics that haunt all Americans. The series shares very diverse perspectives on issues such as single parenting (both male and female single parents), AIDS/HIV, professional Black women and their outlook on finding compatible mates, incarceration rates of Black men, and the quality of education for Black children in poverty.

Soledad O'Brien asks tough questions and leaves space for critical thinking and planning. You would not be upset if you bought this DVD. I honestly believe it is time to "be real" about these issues. Great buy!

I believe that this CNN documentary was very neccessary for people outside the country as well as citizens of the United States who seem oblivious to the fact that black americans still suffer from deeply rooted scars and still struggle to overcome many obstacles related to race.
It's a mile walk in the shoes of black american citizens.
For people who understand that for every action, is an opposite and equal reaction. The goal is to understand black americans rather than place judgement.

This is an excellent video for presenting diversity issues to the public. It's informative and flows nicely from topic to topic.

Thoroughly enjoyed. Saw the special on CNN, and had been waiting to purchase if and when it became available.

This is a really insightful and deeply informative study of the contemporary black condition. I have been viewing it in my high school African-American Literature class, and my students have been immersed in discussions and written responses. It has also been quite easy to match the contents of the dvd with literary pieces from our text, making this an excellent classroom tool, for Literature as well as Social Studies.
A must for both personal possession and library stocking.

I watched the program when it aired on television and I'm glad that I've gotten it for my personal collection.

SOLEDAD O'BRIAN AND CNN SHOULD BE ASHAMED!!!
(I wanted to rate this ZERO stars, but one star was the minimum allowed.)

One example will speak volumes about the quality of this project:
Mrs. O'Brian spends MORE THAN AN HOUR, in multiple segments, talking with a young, little known, Black economist, Roland Fryer, who has never conducted/published any study on health care disparities. (The guy is an economist!) Still, O'Brien used him as the 'expert' on the disparity between the health of White Americans and Black Americans. Fryer told O'Brien that he was looking at an old book, and saw a picture of a White person "licking" the face of a Black slave at a slave auction. Fryer said the photo convinced him that SALT in Black people is the reason for health disparities between White people and Black people.

Maybe you should buy this video just for the incredible experience of HEARING this kind of STRUTTING STUPIDITY!

O'Brien acted as if Fryer had actually solved the issue. It is difficult to believe that O'Brien would accept such a ludicrous theory - - or the ludicrous way that Fryer came up with the theory - - but she accepted it without debate. CNN/O'Brien did not present any of the myriad of experts in this field. And, CNN/O'Brien did not present any of the widely researched, proven theories for the health disparities.

A 5TH GRADER WOULD HAVE DONE A BETTER JOB OF RESEARCHING DATA!!! Don't they have access to the INTERNET at CNN???

The Black community and the scientific/medical community responded with shock and disappointment to this so-called documentary:

In reponse to Fryer's salt theory, Dr. Thomas LaVeist, Director of the Center for Health Disparities Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, said, "...to expose an audience to this theory is very troubling and disappointing." Read Dr. LaVeist's full response and real data, at http://www.fleshandstone.net/healthandsciencenews/blackinamerica.html.

Actually, you can just Google 'CNN Black in America" and read a ton of negative responses.

This 'documentary' reinforced the negative stereotypes that propagate 'modern racism.' CNN chose O'Brien, an unqualified (and powerless?) Black reporter to lead this farce. There are many Black journalists who have the research skills, wisdom, insight, and intellectual power to do justice to this enormous task. Obviously, that's not what CNN wanted.

Perhaps some Republican agenda influenced the production of this banal 'view' of Black America during an election year when a Black man is on the ticket. At least Fox News hits us in the face. CNN has stabbed us in the back.

As a Black in America, I hated this CNN Black in America special. Hostess Soledad O'Brien attempted to enlighten America by introducing the Black experience. In my opinion, she managed to highlight some of the most banal and unimaginative stories and stereotypes which did very little to tell a story of the black existence. Black in America does not deliver, and the way it ended with Michael Eric Dyson saying something about the color of his skin and hair texture versus his brothers was just asinine. The only thing that I found inventive about the special was the familiar linkage - the way people were connected to one another regarding topic issues. In general, the Special highlighted every "problem" that makes us America's [...] offspring - we're poor, unemployable, uneducated, unmarried, and uninspired. In short, I found it to be absolute journalistic garbage emphasizing more problems than promises.

The DVD did not work in my player. The replacement DVD did not work either.

I wasn't able to view the DVD it doesn't play at all, I'm very disappointed