PLACE lecture to include screening of movie that analyzes race relations

Dr. Drew Morton, assistant professor of mass communication at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, will screen “Color Adjustment” at 6 p.m. Monday, in UC 210 on the A&M-Texarkana campus, 7101 University Ave.

The 1992 documentary by Marlon Riggs is part of the school’s Program for Learning and Engagement SuperLecture series. The public is invited to attend the free event.

“Color Adjustment” is narrated by actress Ruby Dee (“A Raisin in the Sun,” “Do the Right Thing,”) and analyzes American race relations through AfricanAmericans on television from “Amos ’n’ Andy” and “The Jeffersons” to “Roots” and “The Cosby Show.”

The film also features interviews with Diahann Carroll (“Julia”) and Norman Lear (“All in the Family,”) plus scholars including Herman Gray and Henry Louis Gates Jr. This rarely-screened documentary won a Peabody Award and was also nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Prior to the screening, Morton give a brief lecture titled “Fade to Black,” which will focus on the contemporary state of racial diversity in Hollywood, the practice of “whitewashing” and the #OscarsSoWhite boycott that defined the 2016 Academy Awards.

PLACE is a faculty-led program designed to create a community of learners comprising A&M-Texarkana students, faculty, staff and the community at large.

PLACE chooses an annual theme around which to organize a lecture series and other activities that provide focal points for learning and discussion. This year’s theme is “Race and Ethnicity.”