Black Film School

Sidney Poitier stood in front of his father and said what Black sons weren't supposed to say... not in private, and definitely not on film.

He told his father he owed him nothing.

That raising a child isn't a debt the child has to repay. It's the bare minimum.

Then he said something most families still won't say out loud:

"Not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs."

That was 57 years ago.

Most of us are still having this conversation.

The difference is... we're finally saying it isn't disrespect. It's a boundary.

What about tears when I'm happy? What about wings when I fall? I want you to be a story for me that I can believe in Forever

Thandie Newton as Beloved and Kimberly Elise as Denver in BELOVED – 1998

Being born here does not make you an American. I'm not an American, you are not an American. You are one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of America. You and I, we've never seen any democracy. We ain't see no democracy on the cotton fields of Georgia, wasn't no democracy down there. We didn't see any democracy on the streets of Harlem, in the streets of Brooklyn, in the streets of Detroit, in Chicago. Ain't no democracy down there. No, we've never seen democracy! All we've seen is hypocrisy! We don't see any American Dream. We've experienced only the American Nightmare.