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New Film Explores What It's Like to be Black in Dayton

Screenshot from 'His Story: America Through the Eyes of the Black Man'
NABJ Dayton Chapter
Screenshot from 'His Story: America Through the Eyes of the Black Man'

On Saturday, the Dayton Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists released a documentary about what it’s like to be a black man in America.

The documentary focuses on five black men living in Dayton.

Courtney Wheaton, President of the Dayton Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, says the documentary was inspired by the abundance of negative portrayals of black men in the news.

“We really want to counteract that,” she says. “They can be that doctor. They can be that tech expert. They’re fathers. They’re not just a mugshot. They’re not here just for entertainment. They’re not here just for crime.”

Wheaton is African-American, but she says she learned a lot about how black men experience the world while working on the documentary.

“They are so hyper-aware of how they are perceived. They kept on saying that people thought they were aggressive. People just automatically assumed that they weren’t intelligent. It just made me so sad that they know people feel that way about them,” she says.

And she says these people aren’t strangers--they’re the people living and working in our neighborhoods, and they’re worth getting to know.

“His Story: America Through the Eyes of the Black Man” is on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube now.