Filmmaker, Author & Black Research academic
Who is Dr. Timothy Lewis?
Graduate of the historic Tuskegee University & published race scholar
Writer, Director & Producer of the educational documentary “Do You Know That You Have Black Friends? A Re-education on Race for White Americans by Black Americans”
Profiled in Political Science Today, the official news magazine of the American Political Science Association (APSA)
Do You Know that You Have Black Friends?
DOCUMENTARY TRAILER
When White people are accused of racism (or simple racial ignorance), they tend to default uniformly to the same defense—“I have Black friends!” This faulty attempt at self-exoneration demonstrates active racial ignorance. It is an ignorance rooted in their privilege, as “nothing in society compels White people to learn anything about their Black friends except that their skin tones are different.” Furthermore, the continued use of the faulty defense informs us of White comfortability—as Dr. King said, White people “are not putting in a similar effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance” (King, 1967).
This documentary serves as a primer to a needed re-education on race by questioning the viewer’s knowledge concerning racial myths, misnomers, and stereotypes about those racialized as Black, including what it means to be Black.
This film premiered to rave reviews at BLACK—A Celebration of Black Research, February 19, 2025, and was screened at the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS) in New Orleans, LA on March 22, 2025.
The documentary is a condensed exploration of a book of the same title contracted under SUNY Press to be released later this year.