Black People : American Dilemma / American Denial: Gunnar Myrdal’s “Mystical Approach” to Race

[RAPTOR]

“The Q&A of Community Cinema DC’s presentation of “American Denial” was one of the rare
moments when the entire audience remained in their seats after the film and yielded most of their
questions and comments time to the speakers — Dr. Mark Bolden and historian/journalist Todd
S. Burroughs, Ph.D. Both speakers gave contrasting yet complimentary analysis of Gunnar
Myrdal’s study “American Dilemma,” the film and its potential to move a conversation on race
forward. “It’s a step,” said Burroughs. Attendees were interested in Dr. Bolden’s recommended
readings about the original “American Dilemma” study: a review written by sociologist E.B. Reuter,
and NAACP co-founder, writer, and sociologist W.E.B. DuBois, published in the Clark Atlanta
University Phylon Journal in 1944. And a second review and analysis written by sociologist Oliver C.
Cox in the Howard University Journal of Negro of Education — “An American Dilemma: A
Mystical Approach to the Study of Race Relations” — published in 1945. It’s always good to
leave a Community Cinema event hungry for more.”