James Pastouna

10 years after Hurricane Katrina I’m making a 30:00-minute report. I never really thought about people being black or white till it was always in the news. My uncle Joe from Barbados and his wife Aunty Helen (not a blood relative) brought me up for a few years when I was a little boy. I remember lots of cuddles. Then, when I was about 14 it occurred to me that Uncle Joe and I would not be allowed to be on the same beach together in some countries.

I ended up doing a lot of stories about people of African heritage. This came about because I was a reporter for TransTel a German government run TV agency who were sending stories to Africa. Me being a Brit and having studied politics got commissions to make stories.

A few clips are here to see. They are part of the ‘shorties’, news item pieces from Britain, Panama, and Costa Rica. It was years ago and not all of the stories have commentary.

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I have permission to film in a Lower Ninth district Baptist Church, am inside with crew and an enormous man approaches me with outstretched arms. I felt a little scared, he then gives me a huge hug. Everyone is hugging each other, it was great. Later,  I’m running around the lower 9^th with Constantin and Jon (sound) and  get to know a hairdresser called Bo Fields. We go to his caravan and he gives me an interview.

Well what’s it like living here?

I’m expecting, “This is terrible, when will they repair the damage?” Doom and gloom answer…

This is what he said:

“Well, James, I have to tell you, ever since I was a little boy I’ve dreamt of living in a caravan. I love it here so much.”

Not the sound bite I’m looking for…

It was a great privilege to meet Mr. Keith Weldon Medley, author of “We as Freemen” and “The Fight Against Legal Segregation.” A quote from the book:

“In June 1892, free man of colour Homer Plessy boarded a train carriage with white passengers, an act of civil disobedience designed to test one of the many Jim Crow laws that threatened the freedoms gained by blacks after the Civil War. This largely forgotten case mandated separate-but-equal treatment and established segregation as the law of the land. It would be fifty-eight years before this ruling was reversed by Brown v. Board of Education.”

Would be a great film…Triumph over adversity…

The way black people are treated in America is really wrong. I would even say disgusting. All these people living in projects and this Hollywood happy family bullshit.