Creighton's Documentary Get Premiere Showing 2/26

University of Nebraska-Lincoln broadcasting lecturer Trina Creighton is giving African American men a voice that is helping others understand social stigmas attached to higher education.
Inspired by her graduate thesis, Creighton has created a documentary that features 10 African American men from north Omaha talking about their education paths. Four of the individuals are enrolled at UNL, another graduated in August, and the other five remain in Omaha, with two in prison.

"I wanted people to hear about this from the mouths of the young black men who live in this community," Creighton said. "I read all the research when I was preparing my thesis. But I became frustrated because it all came from people who did not live in the environments they were talking about. This part of the community simply did not have a voice."
Creighton's documentary, "The Academic Achievement Gap: We Do Better When We Know Better," has been presented to groups in Lincoln and Omaha. Omaha educational foundation Bright Futures Foundation plans a premier showing of it Feb. 26 at Film Streams in Omaha as part of a public conversation about the foundation's mission. Creighton is a consultant with the educational foundation.

Forty-five years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech about equality between races, earning a college education remains a difficult task for the majority of African Americans, with a particularly strong social stigma among African-American men.
According to the 2007 Minorities in Higher Education report by the American Council on Education (which used data from 2005), only 28 percent of African American men and 37 percent of African American women between ages 18 and 24 were enrolled in college. Among white counterparts, those percentages were 40 and 45.

"The education stigma among the black community is something that I experienced as a young girl and it continues today," Creighton said. "It's something that really baffles me, and it inspired me to move forward with this documentary."

Actor John Beasley, an Omaha native, is the host of Creighton's documentary. Rick Alloway, assistant professor of broadcasting, is narrator. Creighton shot and edited the documentary with the help of UNL students. She said she found the interviewees had a lack of role models, a skewed view of healthy behaviors, and did not believe someone cared for them unconditionally.

Creighton said self-motivation and family support were the primary reasons the five young men came to UNL. Most mentioned they were getting an education to help their families. The campus group also told a number of stories that could have drawn them into a life of violence instead of education.

Stemming from the documentary, Creighton began her consultation with the Bright Futures Foundation, an Omaha organization working to create educational excellence and equity. She also plans other documentaries. For more information about Bright Futures Foundation, visit www.bffoundation.com.

Creighton offers to show "The Academic Achievement Gap" documentary to groups. For more information, or to arrange a viewing, contact Creighton at tcreighton2@unl.edu or (402) 472-4796.

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