Thursday, June 12, 2008

A response part 2

In an article written in the New Bern Sun Journal about our film, there were some comments that were posted by readers and we thought it was important to address them here. Let's address this question:

Question number 1) It's a good thing this guy assumes all blacks support Obama. Otherwise this story would just be ridiculous. I think Condi is a much better choice than Obama. Just my two cents...

We thought it very appropriate to showcase the Obama election because it was and is very timely. From our research, the majority of African Americans in Craven County (where James City resides) are registered Democrats. That said, though, it would be poor journalism on our part to assume that "all blacks support Obama" when this is just not the case. We have known going into this project that the African American community has differences of political opinion just like any ethnic group in America does. This would not be a balanced film without showing 2 sides to that aspect of this discussion. And our desire is to get interviews with folks on both sides of the political spectrum for this project.

Whether you support Barak Obama or not, it is still a historic moment for both North Carolina and the United States... especially in this time when it is likely that he is the first African American in history to to be a presidential nominee of a major party in America. This ties in very well with the subject matter of our film which will deal with many topics including the politics of former slaves and African Americans from the Civil War to today. It amazes us as to how timely our film is.

Back in the days after the Civil War, the majority of African Americans in Craven County voted in the Republican party, the party of Abraham Lincoln. Today, this is not the case. But we were even surprised to find out that Alan Keyes, a strong conservative African American was also on the Republican ticket during the primaries in North Carolina. This is a good discussion to find out what African Americans think of someone like Condaleeza Rice or someone like Clarence Thomas. We look forward to the discussion and welcome your comments.



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