Losing Isaiah
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Submitted by TurdGoblin on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
- Category: History Other
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Losing Isaiah
In The film "Losing Isaiah" a black mother dumps her baby in the trash because of her addiction to crack. The baby is retrieved and adopted to a white family. The biological mother goes clean for two years and then fights for her right to her baby in a court of law. The main argument of the biological mothers case is not that the baby needs to be with its biological mom. Rather, a black child needs a black upbringing or the child will grow up color blind. He would grow to believe being white and being black is the same thing. The child will never have a positive in house black role model to look up to and learn from. He will never be aware of his true black identity. For Isaiah the only hope to be in touch with his true personal identity is to be returned to his black mother so he will grow to be black as well as American. This is the same double consciousness and identity split reflected in W.E.B Dubois vision that will allow a black person to be free and active in a white powered America while maintaining their duality and blackness. Reginald McKnight expands on Dubois's ideas of African-Americans in "confessions of a wannabe Negro". This idea is similarly portrayed in "A Bintel Brief" where Jewish immigrants faced the issue of adapting to mainstream American culture while maintaining their old world traditions.
W.E.B Dubois offers an intriguing view of the multi-cultural black man. He strongly believes and quotes in his writings. that "an American Negro has two souls two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder". This is reality more then it is a problem for a black American. But if you don't know you are black and you never distinguish yourself then you have a problem. A problem Isaiah would grow to face. How would Isaiah ever construct his own identity? As oppose to having two souls Isaiah would grow up to be a lost and confused soul. For...
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