The Multicultural Center presented its annual film screening for Black History Month Feb. 12 in the Byron C. Wright Administration Building. The event included free refreshments for attendees, including popcorn, fun-sized candy and drinks.
This year, the Multicultural Center presented “Is That Black Enough for You?!?” The film includes interviews with Samuel L. Jackson, Zendaya, Whoopi Goldberg and Harry Belafonte. The film shows their views on the topics brought up by writer, director and narrator Elvis Mitchell.
Deonte Turnley, program advisor for the Multicultural Center, said this year’s theme for Black History Month is African Americans and the Arts.
“Typically, sometimes you run into students who have no idea about the history of portrayals of African Americans in media, how it’s evolved over time,” Turnley said. “I think being able to have that discussion is really important.”
Turnley said it creates an opportunity for a discussion regardless of the different viewpoints, and having those discussions allows people to grow.
“If everybody always has the exact same mindset of everything, whether it be in a job setting, whether it be in talking about issues, if everybody has the same mindset, you run into that problem of groupthink, where nobody has that opportunity to grow,” Turnley said.
Turnley said the two-hour R-rated film was followed by a discussion of the viewpoints.
“There are a few scenes of nudity, there are a few scenes of vulgar language,” Turnley said. “However, it is in an educational-based setting, so we felt it was important to be able to showcase this film.”
Aminat Olagunju, freshman business administration major, said she was aware of the “Is That Black Enough for You?!?” screening through the Black Student Union.
“I decided to come to this event because I felt like I could learn something from this,” Olagunju said. “Not many times where they show movies like this on campus, so I thought this will be a great learning experience for me.”
After the film, Olagunju said her thoughts and what she learned from the documentary.
“I would say that it wasn’t as easy getting Black people into the film industry, and it was hard to keep us there,” Olagunju said. “It was kind of like the work to get there. We had to work to stay in the film industry. And how, you know, some African Americans didn’t appreciate some of the roles they were given and would like not want to stay in that role or pass it on to someone else.”
Mariam Kenu, junior computer information systems major, also shared what she learned from the film.
“I learned the importance of representation of like Black and colored folks in movies and how it has transitioned from how it used to be before to the current stage now,” Kenu said. “Just having an idea of the work that people have put into it for it to get to where it is now was just really informational and something good to know about.”
To learn more about the MCC and its upcoming events, visit the MCC event page or MCC’s Instagram page @usi_mcc.
The MCC will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pamela Hopson becoming the director of the Multicultural Center at USI Feb. 22.