Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
Project has students reversing race
DURHAM -- Seventh-grader Jenna Berasa squinted through the lens of a vintage Polaroid ProPak on Monday, her finger pausing above the shutter button.
"Is this one your white self or your black self?" she asked classmate Jenny Vitas, who sat on the stairs outside Shepard Middle School pretending to read a book.
"This is my white self," she answered quickly, the wind whipping her long, ash-blond locks as Jenna snapped the photo.
Figuring out how to represent herself as a black girl wasn't as easy for Jenny. In fact, it was downright uncomfortable. She kept glancing at the two black girls standing a few feet away. Jenny decided to pose in a cheerleading stance, because most of Shepard's cheerleaders are black, she said.
"Sometimes you think you're going to make them offended," Jenny explained afterward.
The girls were working on a photo documentary project called "Regarding Race," a joint effort among Shepard Middle, the Duke Center for Documentary Studies and the N.C. Teaching Fellows programs at N.C. Central University and UNC-Chapel Hill.
The project forces students to think about stereotypes and perception through photography. Students take one picture posing in a way they feel reflects their racial identity. They then take a second picture that is supposed to show them as a different race, both through their pose and developing the image to make their skin appear dark or light.
Anthony Graffagnino, 13, showed his black self by standing in front of a shiny new car with a bandanna tied over his curly blond hair, and his white self by kicking a soccer ball across a field.
An exhibit of some of the students' work opened Friday at the Durham Public Library on Roxboro Street Friday. The exhibit ends March 28.
"One of the things we don't do well in this country is talk about race," said Shepard art teacher Robert Hunter, who started the project in 2001 with co-director Alexandra Lightfoot. "We assume that because these kids are so young, they don't think about race. They have already drafted in their minds a concept of race and what race means."
Each semester, a group of 30 to 90 Shepard students work with N.C. Teaching Fellows who have gone through a version of Regarding Race. Through small- group discussions, writing assignments and finally, the photo project, the students begin to pick apart racial perceptions.
Jaleesa Owens, 12, said she was surprised to discover that she held prejudices.
"I really haven't been around white people that much," she said. "We talked about stereotypes, and I thought, is this really what I think of white people? Is this really what I think of black people?"
Eighth-grader Corey Moore said he found out that black and white people judged him on how he looked.
"I learned that I'm different than how people perceive me. Just because I wear baggy pants, people may think I'm a thug and not interested in school," he said. "I may be black, but I don't have to act a certain way."
But after participating in the project, seventh-grader Laura Hunter found she couldn't differentiate between how to depict her white self and her black self.
"It opened my eyes," she said. "You do this, and you don't see people for their skin color or race."
************
Please white peoples, pull yo' chilluns out of public schools as soon as you is able. Do it for yo' chilluns o dey be end up just like cullid folk, yassuh, just like cullid folk.
T.N.B.
DURHAM -- Seventh-grader Jenna Berasa squinted through the lens of a vintage Polaroid ProPak on Monday, her finger pausing above the shutter button.
"Is this one your white self or your black self?" she asked classmate Jenny Vitas, who sat on the stairs outside Shepard Middle School pretending to read a book.
"This is my white self," she answered quickly, the wind whipping her long, ash-blond locks as Jenna snapped the photo.
Figuring out how to represent herself as a black girl wasn't as easy for Jenny. In fact, it was downright uncomfortable. She kept glancing at the two black girls standing a few feet away. Jenny decided to pose in a cheerleading stance, because most of Shepard's cheerleaders are black, she said.
"Sometimes you think you're going to make them offended," Jenny explained afterward.
The girls were working on a photo documentary project called "Regarding Race," a joint effort among Shepard Middle, the Duke Center for Documentary Studies and the N.C. Teaching Fellows programs at N.C. Central University and UNC-Chapel Hill.
The project forces students to think about stereotypes and perception through photography. Students take one picture posing in a way they feel reflects their racial identity. They then take a second picture that is supposed to show them as a different race, both through their pose and developing the image to make their skin appear dark or light.
Anthony Graffagnino, 13, showed his black self by standing in front of a shiny new car with a bandanna tied over his curly blond hair, and his white self by kicking a soccer ball across a field.
An exhibit of some of the students' work opened Friday at the Durham Public Library on Roxboro Street Friday. The exhibit ends March 28.
"One of the things we don't do well in this country is talk about race," said Shepard art teacher Robert Hunter, who started the project in 2001 with co-director Alexandra Lightfoot. "We assume that because these kids are so young, they don't think about race. They have already drafted in their minds a concept of race and what race means."
Each semester, a group of 30 to 90 Shepard students work with N.C. Teaching Fellows who have gone through a version of Regarding Race. Through small- group discussions, writing assignments and finally, the photo project, the students begin to pick apart racial perceptions.
Jaleesa Owens, 12, said she was surprised to discover that she held prejudices.
"I really haven't been around white people that much," she said. "We talked about stereotypes, and I thought, is this really what I think of white people? Is this really what I think of black people?"
Eighth-grader Corey Moore said he found out that black and white people judged him on how he looked.
"I learned that I'm different than how people perceive me. Just because I wear baggy pants, people may think I'm a thug and not interested in school," he said. "I may be black, but I don't have to act a certain way."
But after participating in the project, seventh-grader Laura Hunter found she couldn't differentiate between how to depict her white self and her black self.
"It opened my eyes," she said. "You do this, and you don't see people for their skin color or race."
************
Please white peoples, pull yo' chilluns out of public schools as soon as you is able. Do it for yo' chilluns o dey be end up just like cullid folk, yassuh, just like cullid folk.
T.N.B.