Inspired by a similar video created by the men of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at the University of Illinois, “Suit and Tie in the 217,” features junior and senior males from Central and Centennial high schools in East Central Illinois donning just that, suits and ties. Their intent: to challenge the stereotypes of young, African American men.
“When people see a Black person, they don’t really think he can be smart,” said Central High School Senior Feli Keti. “All they see is like fight, gangster, rapping. I mean some people got that talent, but it’s not just in a bad way,” Keti told WICD.
Keti, along with several other students, feel the need to highlight success and leadership in order to improve the narrative of the African American male. The video shows young men of diverse backgrounds walking through the school halls, studying and playing sports along with captions like “We Are Employees and Volunteers” and “We Are Scholars.” It has gained over 8,000 views on YouTube and has even reached the Governor’s Office. Central High School Social Worker Tiffany Gholson believes the video is about empowerment.
“It’s (sic) a counternarrative that you can write your own story and don’t let anyone else — the media, other people – tell your story; tell it for yourself,” Gholson said. “The negative stories told daily in the media and in our culture about our young African-American men tend to ignore their successes and don’t tell the full story about how young black men are becoming leaders within our community schools.”
However, Take Part writer, Liz Dwyer, offers the argument of why a video of this nature is still necessary.
“Indeed, if we’ve learned anything from Martin’s murder, the Jordan Davis case, or the Twitter feed that tweets all of New York City’s stop-and-frisk incidents, it’s that changing a black man’s clothing won’t make America less racist. A black man in a business suit can still be seen as “suspicious,” or as not the “right cultural fit” for a job,” she writes. “As nice as it is to see these young men looking sharp, they shouldn’t have to prove anything. Their clothing isn’t the problem. What is, is that they had to make this video at all.”
Watch the video below and read more from ABC NewsChannel 15.
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BMWK–What are your thoughts on the video and their reason for making it? Do you agree with Liz Dwyer?