I Am, Or How Jack Became Black

Initially, Eli Steele's documentary appears to be about the dilemmas faced by mixed-race Americans like himself and his children, who must cope with a social system that only operates in clear-cut racial distinctions. But there is an Ayn Rand-ian hyper-individualistic, anti-affirmative action message at the heart of the film. What the doc plays down is that Steele is a chip off the old block of his ultra-conservative father, Shelby Steele, an academic known for his anti-affirmative-action stances. Steele is initially reluctant to tick racial identification boxes on primary school enrollment forms for his son Jack due to his personal conviction that the U.S. should be a meritocratic society. Interviews are presented with folks on both sides of this hot-button issue, and Steele makes some effort not to appear politically biased—the film definitely suggests that conservatives are just as good at playing the “race” card as liberals. But there is still an undeniable political slant, and while the film highlights how the Trayvon Martin murder case was unfairly portrayed as a white vs. black media issue, there is an eerie silence here about the rise in racially-motivated police violence in the U.S. toward the black community. And the suggestion that the so-called racial ordering of the U.S. education and welfare system will lead to the kind of society that produced Nazi extermination camps in WWII smacks of Alex Jones-style libertarian paranoia at its worst. Still, the subject matter alone makes this a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (M. Sandlin)