Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507210030
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY TOM SHALES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``Class Photo'' airs as a special edition of the NBC News magazine ``Dateline NBC'' on Tuesday at 10 p.m. (WSLS, Channel 10). The program is part of a week-long project by NBC News called ``Black, White and Angry'' that aims to examine the state of race relations in the United States.
Why is such an important subject being addressed in the dead of summer? Because the dead of summer is when the money-mad entertainment divisions of the networks will relinquish prime-time hours to the news divisions. Viewing levels and advertising revenues are way down so there's little to lose. Documentaries will thus be popping up on all the networks (except Fox, of course) over the next few weeks.
The premise behind ``Class Photo'' is simple: the ``Dateline'' staff obtained a group photograph made in 1982 of fourth-grade students at Public School 309 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and, over a nine-month period, tried to track down as many of those kids as possible to see how they're doing today. The school is located in a very tough part of a very rough borough. Most of the students are African American.
Of the 25 youngsters in teacher Livingston Holloway's fourth-grade class that year, 21 were located by NBC News. Ten showed up for a reunion staged by NBC that ends the hour and has the unfortunate aura of a talk-show stunt, albeit one with more social relevance than most talk-show stunts have.
Throughout the program, the young people are interviewed by correspondent Len Cannon about the paths their lives have taken since the fourth grade. Among the more obvious findings is that the young women did much better than the young men. Six of the males in the class went on to have criminal records, whereas six of the females went on to college after graduating from high school.
Rakisha, an ambitious young woman, was a good student in fourth grade and stayed one, although some of her jealous friends accused her of ``trying to be white'' because she worked so diligently even as a kid. She has since graduated from New York University and is on the way to becoming a journalist.
Her twin bother, Rashid, didn't do as well. He complains of being harassed by cops and appears to have abandoned his dreams of being an artist, though he showed great potential as a boy. He finally finished high school several years late, however, and has not lost all faith in the future.
The young people defy stereotypes and preconceptions. Sylvia, who sings in the church choir, says racism from white society has tried to hold her back but that she is determined to succeed anyway. ``I am rising above what people said I wouldn't rise above,'' she says. ``I don't want any handouts or anything.''
Unfortunately, the program begins on negative notes, with several stories of young men whose lives have not turned out very well. Video of teen-agers fighting in a subway station is shown not once but twice, even though it involves none of those profiled in the program and is only there for shock value. Anyone who tunes out too early will get a bad impression, not a balanced one.
And although Cannon comes across as a very able, no-nonsense reporter, nothing about the way the program is shot or edited is particularly impressive. It cannot hold a candle to Paul and Holly Fine's special report ``In the Killing Fields of America,'' which dealt with similar problems and aired on CBS in January. ``Dateline'' has, as usual, little artistry or sensitivity to it.
The raw materials are good enough, however, to make the hour compelling, and thankfully all the news in it is not bad. Even a letter written to those at the reunion from a classmate now in prison is not without hope: ``It's not so much where you are,'' the young man tells his friends, ``as what direction you are heading.''
``Class Photo'' is definitely a step in the right direction, if not quite far enough.
by CNB