Breaking New Ground

This week’s reading reflection is an excerpt from Sidney Poitier’s autobiography “Measure of a Man.” Sidney Poitier was an African American actor in the late 1960’s and in chapter six of his book he describes some cultural injustices he experienced. Poitier talks of issues of being African American in the film industry and the types of discriminations he encountered when dealing with movie production companies and his fellow actors. There was a particular film that was in the process of being approved by Columbia Pictures in which an African American doctor goes to meet the Caucasian family members of a woman he was romantically interested in. Given the times of the culture this was a rather taboo subject, which made it difficult to get approved by the production company. Poitier then goes on the describe meeting the other white actors he would be working with in the film. Mr. Poitier visits actress Katherine Hepburn’s house to meet for her for dinner and to talk about the film. Throughout the course of their meeting Poitier describes to us how he could feel her judging him by every comment he made. Although Hepburn was rather liberal, her experience with African Americans was limited to the maids and service people she had hired to work for her. Poitier then goes on to meet Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn together for dinner, in which Hepburn seemed a lot milder in her demeanor. Throughout the chapter Poitier focuses on the issues and discrimination African American’s still faced as society was changing. He makes a strong argument about the anger and hatred he experienced and the importance of turning these negative energies into positive forces that will ultimately mold society to be a more accepting place. Poitier describes the implications of the negative thoughts and the problems they add to society. Going on, he gives a vivid account of meeting racism though police officers for merely being on the wrong side of town and being threatened with murder if he didn’t walk all the way home without looking back. I definitely have a lot of respect and admiration for Poitier and the injustices he experienced. I am particularly fond of the way he chose to look at situations in which he endured negative situations and discriminations. Looking at situations that, without a doubt, would have caused him anger he explains the importance of changing it into something positive that would benefit society. This is nothing short of amazing to me and he paved the way for society to be more accepting of African Americans in today’s society. Without actors and actress like Poitier it is difficult to gauge what our society would be like today. His perseverance and drive to deal with social issues through the media definitely, in my opinion, has made us more accepting of people in general. If it we didn’t have people like Poitier that pressed the societal boundaries then society would not be as ever changing as it is today.