Educational Media Reviews Online

“living in a world that systematically violates your fundamental rights to safety—through gun violence and brutality, for instance—by virtue of your membership in a particular group (e.g., racial or gender group) can have an enormously detrimental psychological toll at the individual and community levels.”
Shabnam Javdani, Assistant Professor of Applied Psychology and Counseling@NYU faculty at NYU Steinhardt.

One of many definitions of the word “blueprint’ is “a detailed plan of something to be done.” This docu-drama portrays the protagonist named Jerod as a young African American man who works in a daycare center. After his best friend is killed in a police shooting in Chicago’s South side, he struggles with what to do next regarding the killing of his best friend. At the same time, Jerod is dealing with his relationship with his common-law wife and child. Having experienced the loss of a close friend Jerod is reminded in a very painful and salient way that the deck might be stacked against not only him, but other young African American men in his community. He loses his job at the daycare and with each passing day, the struggles as a young father and partner in a relationship that becomes even more difficult.

Blueprint looks at the many-faceted layers African American men face every day amidst the deteriorating relationships between our nation’s police departments and minority communities. The ‘blueprint’ illustrated here is that violence on either side is not the answer. Jerod actually survives the everyday turmoil faced by many young men of color, but his struggle continues with a sense of hope for a better place in contemporary America.