Malaika Gadsden Capstone

My great-grandfather was a White man and my great-grandmother was a Black woman. They had my grandmother in 1954 and then she was given up for adoption to a light skin Black family. My grandmother was a secret child and none of us really know the nature of my great-grandparent’s affair (if it was one.) So in this project, I investigated their relationship dynamic and how that reflects American society at large, even to this day. I also wanted to investigate my family history which has often been ignored or that most of the people in my family just do not know about or want to talk about. I investigated my great-grandparent’s dynamic specifically. Initially, I was also going to investigate the dynamic between Black women and White men on a larger American scale. However, it felt more personal to look at my own family and was actually easier given the time I had to complete the assignment. I created a video essay with all of the independent research I found and clips of the interviews with members of my family.

Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a38xfCAz_IuQnQhvuUANZLcu2yC-q24NASw6JyGqJrk/edit?usp=sharing

Final Project:

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2689879358