THE OFFICIAL OTHER AWARENESS PROJECT STORE

More involved than just your personal association with whatever arbitrary and undefined “racial” name you call yourself, the Other Awareness Project (OAP) is a 95% guilt & anger free, thought-provoking, humorous mixture of film documentary, stand-up comedy, and audience discussion that looks into what I think is the continued incorrect categorization of people into “racial” groups by skin color and other arbitrary things. Despite everything we know scientifically, legally, religiously, practically any way you want to look at it, governments and businesses STILL ask questions concerning your “racial” choice? In this era of “keeping it real", Internet access, DNA research, why does an intelligent person answer the questions and STILL classify themselves into “racial” groups? Is it helping to solve any problems? The show is about self-identification and is directed towards community involved, solutions oriented people. That's it! I conducted a 3-hour workshop at the 22nd Annual Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education. The conference was attended by more than 2,000 persons representing higher education institutions, agencies, state and national associations, commissions, and foundations concerned with higher education, from 49 of the 50 states. The OAP received overall ratings of: 17% Excellent, 33% Very Good, 33% Good, 17% Fair. Visit: http://www.otherawarenessproject.com to watch video clips! Visit these links to view additional clips on my You Tube channel: http://www.youtube.com/OAProject Visit this link to download the complete Media Kit with words of support from Barack Obama, Clarence Thomas, Vernon Jordan and many others. http://www.otherawarenessproject.com/OAP_mediakit.pdf Visit this link to purchase the 2 Disc, 4 hour DVD Set: http://www.otherawarenessproject.com/DVD_email.html Although we touch upon a wide variety of topics, the project isn't focused on racism or past wrongdoings, real or perceived. It's more focused on today and tomorrow, and helping to discover the best plan going forward that everyone can support. I traveled to various cities around the country. (Long Beach, CA; Austin, TX; Portland, OR; Cypress, CA; Carson, CA; Youngstown, OH) filming conversations with people I didn't know and who are more intelligent than I am. People, who have been calling themselves any of the completely arbitrary and legally undefined “racial” categories for 10, 20, 30, 40 years. To see why they still chose a "racial" category, how they supported that decision, and how it has or hasn't affected their lives. Everyone answered the same roughly 20 questions, from “Who is Al Sharpton?" to “Where is Caucasia?” to "What is the legal description of a _____ person in the United States?" Not one person knew the questions until we were filming. I didn’t prep any of the responses. The conversations are exactly as they happened with as little editing as possible. Highlights include speaking with Marc Dann, Attorney General for the state of Ohio. Jim Dear, Mayor of Carson, CA, Dr. Joseph Graves Jr., Professor of Biology at NC A&T University, and Rabbi Brian Zachary Meyer Los Angeles. The purpose of the filming was to show: 1) It really isn't that hard to talk with people of different "racial" groups. Anywhere! 2) That the conversation doesn't have to be angry and can lead to solutions. "Racism" isn't a hard problem to solve. 3) You can actually have fun and just might learn something from listening to someone else's experiences. Past presentations include: 5 workshops at Reid Continuation High School, Long Beach, CA; The Cellar (nightclub), Long Beach, CA; Smooth's (nightclub) Long Beach, CA; A Citizens Group, Hyattsville, MD; Orange County Democratic Club, Irvine, CA. Brief Biography: Born in Champaign, IL, Michael is the fourth of eight children who have the same mother, with four different fathers. He met his father when he was about ten years old. “Growing up on welfare without a full-time father has its challenges, but as you talk to other people, everyone has challenges." "Your problems don't define you "racially" unless you let them." After the third grade, his mother and five kids moved to a two bedroom house in Rantoul, IL, a small farm town with an Air Force base, population about 20,000. Everything was different! New people, new places, but at the same time, many people had similar life experiences, and some of them didn't call themselves "black". “Since the fourth grade my friends and teachers and mentors have been people from all “races”. During college, he was asked to join a “black” fraternity and a “white” fraternity. (… and about six sororities!) After the birth of his daughter in 2002, Michael resigned his position as a Director of Operations for News America Marketing to spend time raising her and complete this project. “I have completely enjoyed the time shared with my daughter and think the direction of this project better reflects the experiences I have had with people throughout my life." "I also think it provides a better platform for a society going forward." Today Michael is self-employed and active on the boards of a couple non-profit organizations in Southern California.