Young Gifted And Black Presents: Black Women At Mit

Between the title and the cover blurb ("seven African-American women give an honest and revealing look into their lives at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology"), you wouldn't guess that this tape is really about semi-magnetic semiconductors, the components of a high voltage power supply, isopolymers, and differences between speech recognition systems. A simple collection of interviews with black female MIT students who don't talk about being women, being black, or even much about being students--but mostly about particular fields of study--has, I suspect, limited value. About 22 minutes into the 28-minute tape, three students are interviewed together who finally talk about being black at MIT and the problems or lack of problems they've encountered. This interesting conversation is very abruptly ended mid-sentence and the credits roll. I haven't a clue who might be the audience for this video. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)