I loved the documentary. It gave me a better insight of the struggles black males have in fitting in; be it in there community or at school. I have a daughter and we have been at an independent school since she was three. We are an American family and we attend a French school. Believe it or not our daughter was discriminated against her nationality, not by the color of her skin (there are quite a few girls of color at her school but they are from francophone countries i.e., Haiti, Morocco). When she was in first grade she came home and announced she was the only one in her class from North America! All of North America? You are telling me there are no French Canadians in your class?! and she was right. After comforting her, I chuckled and explained to her that her French school is a little pea in this great big pod called America. At one time she wanted to be anything but American. In the film its heartbreaking when one of the stars of this film also wanted to be something different than what he was. Now with the maturity of my daughter's classmates and us teaching her to be proud to be an African American she realizes that she has been very fortunate in being exposed to an immersion school; becoming fluent in French, understanding the culture and an appreciation of another country and their history. Elementary children just want to fit in. With great guidance from parents and good teachers; by Jr. high they seem to come into their own. In this documentary you see the struggle that the parents also go through trying to understand the culture of the school, what is expected of their child, helping them with their studies, and understanding why only the kids of color are appointed a tutor. It is a must see for anybody that is a faculty, staff member,a teacher or a parent at an independent school.
Review of American Promise
