Reznet

Neverending Story: Racism Across Three Generations

By Ekoo Beck

MISSOULA, Mont.—"Being white and a Native American is kind of weird."

So begins Ekoo Beck's personal story of discrimination in an excerpt from "Inside Out," a documentary shot by middle school students in Missoula, Mont. Beck is Blackfeet and an eighth-grader at Missoula's Washington Middle School.

For the documentary, Beck visited the Blackfeet Reservation town of Browning, Mont., and videotaped her grandmother, Angeline Wall, and 95-year-old great-grandmother, Annie (Mad Plume) Wall, as they recounted some of their experiences with racism.

What message does Beck hope to deliver through her video stories? "It doesn't matter really in the long run what color skin you have," she said. "It only matters how you use your knowledge."

"Inside Out" is a middle school documentary project that focuses on homophobia, sexism, racism and discrimination against elders and young people. The documentary premiered May 30 at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula.

Anne Medley produced "Inside Out" for the National Coalition Building Institute. Medley is photo editor of New West, a news Web site in Missoula. She teaches multimedia at the Freedom Forum's annual American Indian Journalism Institute.

Ekoo Beck, Blackfeet, is an eighth-grader at Washington Middle School in Missoula, Mont. This video is an excerpt from the documentary "Inside Out" and is used with permission.