Courtesy of American Denial<br><br>In the 1970s, sociologists conducted studies with young black children who would look at black dolls and call them bad or ugly. In 2008, the study was repeated with similar results. The study is included in the documentary "American Denial," which airs Monday night on PBS.
Courtesy of American Denial<br><br>In the 1970s, sociologists conducted studies with young black children who would look at black dolls and call them bad or ugly. In 2008, the study was repeated with similar results. The study is included in the documentary "American Denial," which airs Monday night on PBS.

In a PBS documentary airing Monday night on “Independent Lens” called “American Denial,” filmmakers parallel Myrdal’s findings with what’s happening today in the post-Civil Rights and post-Ferguson era. The film was screened twice in Durango last week, one through the Durango Community Cinema program at Durango Public Library on Tuesday night, the other at Fort Lewis College on Thursday night.

“This is a discussion we need to be having as a community,” said Bliss Bruen, who organizes the Durango Community Cinema program, to about 80 attendees ranging in age from high school to senior citizens and a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds. “I hope this documentary gets it going.”

Myrdal visited northern and southern cities, telling white people he was from Sweden, where they didn’t have black people, and asking white people what black people were like. The answers led him to compare what was happening to blacks in America to what was happening to Jews in Nazi Germany, much to Southerners’ denial. Then he and social scientist Ralph Bunch, who was black, observed and surveyed black Americans as well. Myrdal would, in later years, regret how “careless” he was with Bunch’s life.

Several people from Fort Lewis College attended the library screening.

Yvonne Bilinski, director of the Native American Center at FLC, said she was sorry the documentary was only about the African-American experience and didn’t address what Native Americans and people of Hispanic heritage have undergone.

The thrust of “American Denial” is a look at implicit bias, stereotypes and prejudices every person picks up from the society around us. Understanding and dealing with them is not easy.

FLC’s diversity coordinator Nancy Stoffer invited the audience to a Diversity Dialogue Initiative on March 14. It will include exercises to help begin to understand these implicit feelings that drive us.

“My general impression of human beings is that they are confused in their mind,” Myrdal wrote about his experiences and the implicit biases he observed. “Their public opinions are certainly not their private opinions.”

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To watch

“American Denial” will air at 9 p.m. Monday on Rocky Mountain PBS.
Visit www.pbs.org/independentlens/american-denial to learn more about the documentary and Gunnar Mydal.
Several organizations, including Durango High School’s Prejudice Elimination Action Team youth group, Fort Lewis College’s El Centro de Muchos Colores and Common Ground student groups, Celebrating Healthy Communities Coalition, Alternative Horizons and the city of Durango’s Community Relations Commission, are co-sponsoring an Embracing Diversity Initiative for a morning of experiential diversity activities to teach skills to thrive in our multicultural community and world. All ages from middle school and older are welcome. The free event will take place from 8:45 a.m. to noon March 14 at the Durango Public Library, 1900 East Third Ave. RSVPs are requested by March 9 to Lauren Patterson at 259-1247 or [email protected].