American Promise: A Documentary

(HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! I will write in festive colors, for the sake of the holiday) :)

A few of you are in EOL 582 with me, and saw this video I shared with the class, but I thought it went perfectly with the theme for this week of class in regards to the readings of A Hope in the Unseen and our discussion from class on Monday. 

The following video is a trailer for a 2013 Sundance Film Festival selected documentary following 2 African-American boys through the American education system at a predominantly white school in the upper east side of Manhattan. The boys' parents filmed, produced and edited over 12 years of filming from kindergarten to high school graduation. This documentary is to show the struggles of identity development as these boys straddle the line between two worlds, and two identities. I think it also relates directly to cultural capital and cultural community wealth we were talking about in class on February 11. 

After watching the trailer, do you feel this is a good representation of the differences in cultural capital and identity development students come to college with?

How do you think this relates to Cedric, in A Hope in the Unseen? Though Idris and Seun are having different educational experiences than Cedric, do you think they're still battling the same issues and struggles in regards to identity and education? 

What are your overall thoughts on this video clip/the concept of the documentary as a whole?

American Promise Website