Plot Synopsis

BLACK IN AMERICA is a series of documentaries during which journalist Soledad O'Brien explores issues of racial and ethnic identity in the United States. In the series' fifth installment, "Who Is Black America?," O'Brien examines how much regarding race and identity are personal choices vs. reflections of an external social construct, looking at the issue in light of recent Census data that revealed one in seven American newborns were of mixed race in 2010, representing an increase of two percent from 2000. In August 2013, CNN debuted "Great Expectations," the next installment of BLACK IN AMERICA, which takes a look at the vast achievement gap in the education system between white and black children. During this special O'Brien follows a seven-year-old child for a year at the Mastery School, a collaboration between the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education (MPS) and local charter school CEO, Eric Mahmoud.
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On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 9pm ET/6pm PT, CNN premiered the "Black & Blue" edition of BLACK IN AMERICA. In this one-hour special, O'Brien investigates how the lives of young men are fractured by aggressive policing, taking viewers into the lives of men frisked without cause as many as 100 times -- and the police officers who insist they're just fighting crime. In this program O'Brien reveals that the NYPD reported it made more than 5 million stops between 2002 and 2013. Of those stopped, more than 80 percent were African American or Latino, and 88 percent of the stops did not result in arrests, summons, or evidence of any crime. O'Brien also sits down to interview New York Police Commissioner William Bratton.