North Cook News

Filmmaker Eli Steele and Maze Jackson, co-host of “Wake-up with Maze and Charles” on WVON Radio, were among those taking part in the screening for Steele's personal documentary "How Jack Became Black," which brings the issue of race identity into the forefront.

The screening, held in Northfield by the New Trier Neighbors, included a post-screening panel that featured Steele, Northwestern University's Jabbar Bennett, Chicago pastor and CEO of Project H.O.O.D. Corey Brooks, African American Club co-president Kelly Allison, Society for Women in Engineering Club co-president Maddie Joseph and several seniors from New Trier High School. 

In his documentary, Steele, who was born to a black father and Jewish mother, tackles the issue of race identity through telling the story of not being able to enroll his mixed-race son, Jack, in an elementary school unless he identified with one "primary race" box on his son's registration forms. This prompts Steele to take on the issue of identity politics as he travels around the country to answer questions and concerns on racial identity.

"America's demographics are changing faster than we can imagine," Steele told North Cook News. "The multiracial population likely will outnumber the black or Asian populations by the year 2050. Yet despite more Americans crossing the color line than ever before, we as a nation continue to double-down on identity politics, which is really reducing people to their skin color." 

"I think the movie is very enlightening as it relates to the direction that our country is going," Brooks, who served as a panelist during the screening event, told North Cook News. "Mr. Steele did a great job helping us to understand the dynamics behind diversity."

Bennett said his participation in the panel reflected the fact that categories and issues of race remain relevant in our country. 

"Members of some racial groups continue to see benefits and reap dividends, while others appear to be overtaxed and burdened by various negative outcomes which continue to deepen the divide and widen the disparity," Bennett said. 

Steele said he hopes audiences will come away from the film understanding that identity politics gives a false promise of diversity and racial equity.

"Another crucial part of the film is that it removes identity politics from the abstract space and shows how it functions in everyday practice," Steele said. "This makes identity politics more real to us and we can see more clearly how much it damages relations between human beings."

"In reality, it reduces us to skin color and measures progress by how many of a particular race are represented," he added. "If we want to increase diversity and better the odds of Americans, then we have to focus on individual development. After all, true progress should be measured by how many strong and resilient individuals we produce."

"By holding up the mirror, it becomes possible for us to see ourselves as we are now and this gives us the power to decide what kind of people we want to be going forward," Steele said. 

Brooks said he hopes the audiences took away a message of unity.

"I hope that the audience will take away that we are all part of one race, that is the human race, and the sooner that we can come together around that fact the better off our country will be," Brooks said.