Kevin J. Williams, director of the documentary Fear of a Black Republican, describes the journey to making the film as starting with what was to him a simple question: Does the Republican Party really want more African-Americans?
He shot and edited it the film over the course of six years. Going from state to state and interviewing both republicans and democrats, Williams tried to get the answer to this question. Newsworks reported that Williams, a young white republican from Trenton New Jersey “…asked his local committee if he could put fliers in a black neighborhood for George W. Bush’s re-election bid. Don’t bother, he was told. It will only hurt us.”
He knew that something was askew. Williams looks at the GOP’s efforts in urban areas as well as suburban. He interviewed political leaders like former Republican Party Chairman, Michael Steele, conservative thinkers such as Newt Gingrich and black Republican ex-Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts.
The result is a film critical of both sides of the bipartisan system of democracy here in the United States and their interaction with the black communities around the country.
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