From Precious II For Colored Girls

The Black Image in the American Mind

When the newly minted Tea Party Movement clashed with the 100-year-old civil rights group The NAACP earlier this year, it brought to the fore a tension bubbling beneath the surface throughout the nation: What happens when the conservative re-branding of free speech meets the liberal preoccupation with political correctness?

From entertainment to politics, and the media images that accompany them, the civil rights era idea of “Blackness” is currently in flux. FROM PRECIOUS II FOR COLORED GIRLS examines how this redefinition of Black culture, politics and ethnicity—from without and within—has affected the ways Blacks are perceived and discussed in today’s national culture.

With a view on America’s racial history and future, this exciting program dissects contemporary moments in popular culture and political debates where race, image and identity come center stage. Films like Lee Daniels’ Precious, Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls, television dramas like The Wire and Treme, and hot button political issues such as immigration and Islamophobia lead the list.

  • Has Black authenticity as defined through a 1960s lens run its course?
  • How do popular narratives of Blackness from Birth of a Nation to Precious impact public policy around policing, incarceration, housing and employment?
  • How do the various backgrounds and experiences of Black immigrants fit into this discussion?