MICROAGGRESSIONS, MAJOR TRAUMA

DEANDRE SMITH, a filmmaker from Chicago, remembers being one of two Black students in the Columbia College Chicago film program back in 2011. One of his professors, a “liberal, progressive white woman,” often pitted the two Black students against each other by comparing their work. Smith also says his professor once told him that Black men “are known to beat their wives and girlfriends.”

“At the time, I didn’t know how to respond to that,” he says. “I knew it was messed up, but I had to ask myself: ” Assumptions from classmates, like that he was inspired by Spike Lee and Tyler Perry