deerstalker

https://blackgirlnerds.com/12-black-documentaries-to-watch-now/

Documentaries have the ability to educate, inspire, and open windows to our past. Through the lens of talented filmmakers, we can be transported to places we never thought possible, or re-live moments in history we would never otherwise see. Black documentaries offer rich insight into our society and culture, connect us to some of our proudest and most shameful moments in American history, and remind us of just how far we’ve come.

The following are 12 Black documentaries that are a must to add to your watch list. From places to travel to celebrating Black women, and so much more.

Black Travel across America

International travel and diversity consultant Martinique Lewis takes us on a journey to visit historically listed Green Book locations and modern Black travel destinations. The Negro Motorist Green Book was published annually from 1936 to 1966, and served as a must-have guidebook used by Black families and business people, listing hotels, rooming houses, and restaurants where Black travelers would be welcomed and safe. The stops are more than just hotels and restaurants, though. Lewis delves into the history of the locations and talks with people who remember how Black people used the Green Book.

Summer of Soul

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s debut as a filmmaker is so, so good. This documentary is part music film, part culture and fashion, and part historical record surrounding the Harlem Cultural Festival that took place in 1969, just 100 miles from Woodstock. Summer of Soul focuses on the importance of history to our well-being and the healing power it has during times of unrest. There are performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, and many more.

Black Is King

Black Is King is a musical film co-written, executive produced, and directed by none other than our favorite queen Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. It is a visual companion to the 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift, curated by Beyoncé for the film The Lion King. It tells the story of a young African king who is cast out into the world as a baby — and grows up to return home to reclaim his throne. It’s so visually stunning that you’ll find yourself watching it again and again.

High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America

If you’re anything like me, you love all types of food. So, I was excited about this one! But it’s so much more than food. It’s reframing our history through the lens of Black people’s food. It’s history lessons and incredible food rolled into one. Food writer Stephen Satterfield hosts this series, and the best part is that second season is coming on Netflix.

Becoming

Michelle Obama will always be our forever First Lady. If you’ve read her book, then you will love this documentary. It takes an intimate look at her life and connection with various people during her 2019 book tour for Becoming. Obama speaks openly about the balance of maintaining her sense of self, along with the endless scrutiny every First Lady finds herself facing once she becomes the most recognized woman in the world.

Wattstax

In 1972 in Los Angeles, director Mel Stuart captured all the performances of the Watts Summer Festival, organized by Stax Records. It was a gathering of musicians and entertainers from the Black community, brought together to remember the Watts Riots from seven years prior. Performances include comedian Richard Pryor and singers Isaac Hayes and Luther Ingram. Stuart also presents shots of the Watts streets and community along with the festival footage.

What Happened, Miss Simone?

This is a biographical film about Nina Simone, one of the greatest artists of our time. She lived such a fascinating, brutally honest life and was a classically-trained pianist and Black power icon. This documentary features never-before-heard recordings and rare archival footage.

Toni Morrison: Black Matters

In 1993, one of my favorite authors, Toni Morrison, was the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her novel, Beloved, was the first time a Black author dared to speak about the horrible foundation of American society: slavery. The documentary explores the significance of Morrison’s work in an America still struggling with racist violence.

I Am Not Your Negro

In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing what his next project, Remember This House, would be. The book was to be a personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his close friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. When Baldwin died in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of this manuscript. Filmmaker Raoul Peck took those pages and envisioned the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is this open and honest documentary.

The 1619 Project

After reading The 1619 Project, I felt like I had been on the most emotional roller coaster I’ve ever had reading a book. The 1619 Project film, created and spearheaded by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, continues this journey of crucial information regarding the history of Black people in America. It’s the history we never knew but have so desperately needed.

Black Joy

This documentary is a PBS Original three-part series that gives a unique perspective into how Rhode Island’s Black community draws upon joy as a source of strength. Through food, the arts, and mental health, each episode explores the rich history, tradition, and legacy of joy and its essential role in persevering through hard times.

Rise Again: Tulsa & the Red Summer

Washington Post journalist DeNeen Brown investigates the Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Elaine, Arkansas, massacres. This documentary is a worthy introduction to a horrific but fundamentally important part of American history that is conveniently ignored in the history books. The camera follows Brown as she speaks with community activists and massacre descendants both in Tulsa and Elaine, Arkansas, where what was likely the deadliest massacre of the Red Summer took place. In Tulsa, Brown watches archeologists in the distance at work in the Oaklawn Cemetery, where a mass grave is eventually discovered in late 2020. In Elaine, she discovers that somewhere out there is a mass grave from the massacre; it is thought that hundreds of Black lives were lost in just one September night in 1919 at the hands of white supremacist rioters, although massive efforts to cover up what happened and then deny the massacre even happened mean the true numbers will never be known.

https://blacknerdproblems.com/its-time-to-abandon-morality-systems-in-games-morality-systems-in-games/

I am a little behind on the times, but I have spent the last month working my way through Marvel’s Midnight Suns. The initial release was plagued with performance issues, but that has since settled and even optimized for the Steam Deck. So when it was on sale, I picked up the combination tactical strategy and card based roleplay game, and I can genuinely say I enjoyed the game. Out of the 100 in-game days I spent, the vast majority was doing random side quests just to play with the different decks of different heroes. Occasionally, I participated in a weird Persona-esque social link system that featured several weird occurrences including throwing Magik a surprise birthday, participating in a book club with Blade so he could hook up with Captain Marvel, and solving the secret of the Salem Witch Trials. And throughout all of this narrative, at various points in time I was required to respond with certain answers designated as “Light” and “Dark” aka a morality system.

The Light/Dark morality system and its partner the binary karma meter is older than dirt. The concept of alignment has been around since at least the original Dungeons & Dragons, and even then, I think many of my contemporaries would point to Mass Effect as reigniting the popularity of the system. Now, here’s the thing. In Marvel’s Midnight Suns, the morality system has absolutely no impact on the narrative whatsoever. At best, it causes minor fluctuations in the arbitrary friendship meters in exchange for greater rewards for certain playstyles. At worst, it’s a completely superfluous system that adds absolutely nothing to the great narrative and only changes things on the most basic cosmetic level. For all of the pontificating, the meditations of harnessing dark magics, the absorbing of dark essence, greater goods, lesser evils, none of it mattered. The story played exactly the same and if I did a second playthrough…well honestly…I would probably skip every single cutscene and mash A as quickly as possible selecting, but I would do so with the dark aligned options just to try the different cards and watch as my gruffer Hunter proceeds to do everything relatively the same with a little bit more snark. It’s not even the illusion of choice, it’s the illusion of choice of choice.

Part of this stems from the mechanical ties that a morality system has. There are clear benefits for always selecting the option aligned to you, and there is very little reason to deviate. Whether it’s any of the Star Wars games, Infamous: Second Son, Mass Effect, or even going back to the original Paladin in Dungeons & Dragons, it doesn’t make sense to be morally gray. Paladins in D&D are probably the most egregious example as actively straying away from the Lawful Good (or whatever alignment your variant Paladin is) would strip them of their powers entirely. But outside of that, most of the systems incentivize consistency which makes to a degree, but it also makes for a much more linear gaming experience.

And while I’m not one to sing any praise to Mass Effect: Andromeda, a game best described as “okay” and “not quite the worthy successor to the pedigree of the franchise it bears,” one of the nicer changes in pace was that the dialog options did not have clear cut decisions. There was no clear flag or signposts. The decisions had impact, and it actually felt like your Ryder was a more complex person than just the upstanding Paragon Shepherd or the brooding Renegade Shepherd.

This binary format also impacts non-RPGs if we take a look at visual novels and visual novel-esque games like the original Telltale games although in a slightly different way. When designing a game with multiple branching, intersecting paths, all of those paths have to be defined…lest you end up with a Bandersnatch. But one of the things that designers have noticed is that there were several occasions where the overwhelming majority of the player-base opted to take the less moral option.

What the Walking Dead games ended up with splits that idea even more when it comes to morally grey zombie apocalypses; however, here are some fun statistics from the first Batman:

• 70% of players gave Falcone pain medication to ease his suffering.
• 92.8% continued to fund Harvey’s campaign despite Harvey having to abandoned ties
• 68% assured that Alfred wasn’t at fault for the sins of Thomas Wayne

And it gets to a point where an equal development time has to be devoted to a path that the vast majority of the players won’t ever experience because of this faux level of critical thinking. And at least the Telltale games are designed with this plethora of choices in mind, and even though key events will always play out in similar ways, there is enough differentiation in the smaller choices that I don’t have much qualms.

But too often, the light/dark morality system is shoehorned into games as an afterthought, a superficial layering that detracts more than it adds. And there are games that have successfully implemented these systems (Dishonored, Red Death Redemption), but if Midnight Suns is any indication, the system and the novelty are worn out. It’s gotten to the point where this trend has impacted how I approach teaching new players about Dungeons & Dragons. I ask them not to view alignment as dogma for the character but as a baseline for the actions. It certainly helps that the typical player always manages to make the buck wildest decision in the name of whatever their current motivation is, and I haven’t had a Paladin PC in ages. However, the point stands that the arbitrary 3×3 grid summarizing morality is not useful.

If incorporated into the design, morality system can add a layer of complexity (Undertale being one of the more modern prime examples and deconstructions), but if we are going to go down that route, I urge designers to branch out from the well-trodden paths. Griftlands relationship centric system serves as a great example of making individual choices matter within context as the different NPCs you interact with have different factions, and it creates a tangled web of choices. Furthermore, newer TTRPGs such as Tales of Xadia and Avatar: The Last Airbender offer individualized scales that the player opts into as part of character creation. Morality systems are clearly crucial in society, but in games, I think we can shift focus just a little bit.

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The post It’s Time to Abandon Morality Systems…in Games appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

https://www.blackenterprise.com/trinity-rodman-dennis-rodman-nwsl-washington-spirit-breaks-record/

The daughter of former NBA champion Dennis Rodman, Trinity Rodman, is a renowned soccer player who has already broken several records in two short years in the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League). Recently she became the youngest player in NWSL history to reach 10 goals and 10 assists.

According to CBS Sports, when the Washington Spirit beat the San Diego Wave 3-1, over the weekend, not only did that victory keep the team undefeated, but it also saw Trinity Rodman make league history after she scored a goal and added an assist.

With 13 goals and 10 assists, Rodman became the NWSL first player to record at least 10 goals and 10 assists in the regular season before turning 21.

10+10 – With a goal and an assist today, @WashSpirit‘s Trinity Rodman (13 goals, 10 assists) is the first player in @NWSL history to record at least 10 goals and 10 assists in regular season play before turning 21 years old. Complete. pic.twitter.com/z4yFbGiIxU

— OptaJack (@OptaJack) May 6, 2023

The athleticism inherited from her famous, yet controversial father has carried her to the record books.

Trinity Rodman was drafted second in the 2021 NWSL College Draft. When she made her professional debut with the Washington Spirit, she immediately placed her name in the record books by becoming the youngest American goalscorer in league history, minutes after entering the game.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/mental-health-concerns-for-black-and-brown-students-on-campus/

College campuses have been under pressure to meet student’s mental-health needs, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Counseling centers and clinicians who work with students are now seeing a significant increase in anxiety, depression, and behavioral disorders. There are also less-visible problems like stress, attention deficit, and more that have an impact on academic performance. It’s crucial that leadership on college campuses understands these challenges and knows how to intervene.

According to the National Education Association, nearly 100,000 students across 133 campuses participated in a survey that showed 44 percent of students reported symptoms of depression; 37 percent experienced anxiety; 15 percent considered suicide. The rates of depression and anxiety among Black students have been increasing at an overwhelming rate. When mental illness goes untreated, academic performance is hindered, as well as the student’s social and emotional well-being.

Students are very much feeling disconnected from a lot of things — from classes, from their friends, and from families. That could have a huge impact upon other areas of their lives. Sometimes, however, it’s not as easy to detect what’s clearly a crisis.

I have taught in higher education for 15 years, with the last 10 of those years fully online. The average age of my students is 35 years old, and the majority are current and prior-service military. Some of my students will soon be separating and have tremendous stress about what they are going to do next.

There are a separate set of challenges associated with students attending online classes. They feel isolated and have no interaction with their classmates, other than Zoom. In fully remote learning environments, many students can face challenges with limited internet or technology access. Loss of a loved one, homelessness, financial hardships, racial discrimination, or moving back in with aging parents all contribute to the steep rise we’re seeing in poor mental health.

A study from the National Institutes of Health found that approximately 34 percent of Black students reported feeling “so depressed in the last year it was difficult to function.” Black students attending HBCUs have also been dealing with the additional stress of bomb threats at their universities and suddenly not having access to abortion services in the wake of Roe v. Wade — Black women are disproportionately affected by this.

Eighty-six HBCUs are in states that have already restricted access to abortion, and many more are in the process of challenging reproductive rights, a factor that completely adds to the stress and anxiety Black students are already experiencing. 

The pandemic has certainly increased the mental strain on a generation of college students already reporting record levels of psychological challenges. Black students need mental health services — both talk therapy and sometimes medication — now more than ever, but with the increase in students seeking counseling, some universities are having trouble meeting their needs. 

Racial disparities exist on college campuses, despite increasing rates of college admissions and enrollment among Black and Brown students. On campus, students are more likely to encounter people of color in service jobs than in faculty or leadership positions. I receive emails from Black students all the time letting me know they are excited to have a Black professor. I don’t take that lightly, and it reinforces the fact that representation matters. That connection alone sometimes makes all the difference between a student pushing through my class or giving up.

The truth is, the coronavirus crisis highlights the fragility of a system that even before the pandemic was not doing enough to meet students’ needs. Here in California, college campuses have responded by moving therapy appointments online and using state grants to add services.

The question is: What can colleges and universities do to better support Black and Brown students?

I believe a first step is creating an environment in which they can feel supported and included. This begins with recruiting and retaining diverse faculty and staff. More important is the need to hire culturally competent mental health providers from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is possible to invest in initiatives that improve equity and inclusion on campus, even though they are in jeopardy in some states. When programs like this exist, they support social support and feeling a sense of belonging, as well as cultural pride. This is also important within the distance learning space.

As a faculty member, I am privy to many firsthand accounts of my Black students’ struggles to thrive in a predominantly white environment. I also hear the stories of challenges at home and how they are trying to cope. In certain situations, school is the only outlet they have. Those who are struggling with multiple burdens associated with being a Black student must be protected by their campuses and offered proper resources and help.

The process of students’ healing from mental-health challenges requires significant internal commitment and external support. Black and Brown college students are brilliant, talented, and creative, and they dream as big as other students. Pursuing higher education should not cause them to suffer in silence.