Brandon Whitney straightened his tie, cleared his throat and looked straight into the camera's lens.
"You should know how to do a budget, save, and give some away," said Whitney, a 27-year-old graduate student. "You should know when to have a child, and when not to."
Behind the camera, Janks Morton murmured, "That's good, that's good."
Morton, the director of the documentary Men II Boys, which he began shooting yesterday at Bluford Drew Jemison Science Technology Engineering Math Academy in East Baltimore, was looking for just that kind of advice as he asked dozens of African-American men, one after the other, for shards of wisdom that might improve their collective standing in society.
It was all very well, Morton said during a break, to wax eloquent about larger philosophical goals such as equality, integrity and responsibility, but what many black men need is practical "nuts and bolts" advice about living smart.
"I need to hear how to shake a hand," he said. "What about passing physics?"
LaMarr Darnell Shields agreed. Addressing a group of prospective interviewees in a hallway at the school, he said black men need to know how to fill out an application form, use a screwdriver and repair a flat tire on a bicycle.
Shields, co-founder of the Urban Leadership Institute in Baltimore and author of the book 101 Things Every Boy of Color Should Know - set for release in February and the inspiration for Morton's documentary - said that one of the most crucial rules should be "not to use your race as an excuse to fail."
Many parents - and especially fathers - in the African-American community fall short, Shields said, in teaching their sons not only values such as commitment and ambition but everyday skills that will make them feel useful and productive. "If someone didn't get it right for you," he said, "this is your opportunity to get it right for somebody else."
Each man sitting before Shields held a sheet of paper bearing the headline, "To become a man you should ..." followed by several blank lines that the men were encouraged to fill in. Once in front of the camera, the responses became the basis for Morton's interviews.
Despite Shields' advice, some of the men still tended to speak in abstractions. "You should know how to tap the power within," said Tchaka Sapp, 45, founder of the Athletic Leadership Institute in Washington. In the same vein, 29-year-old Jesmond Riggins, a second-year law student at Rutgers University, advised knowing "how to invoke strength in times of weakness" and, more concretely, being able to "defuse tense or even dangerous situations."
