The former Chair of the Cinema and Television Arts Department at Elon University, Dr. Naeemah Clark met with me over Zoom meeting one Friday morning in March. After admitting to not feeling interesting enough to be profiled, we discussed her strong passion for colorism and media. Dr. Clark sat at her dining room table at an angle where her degrees on the wall could be seen and spoke about recognizing colorism from a young age. She was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to a Phylicia Rashad skin-toned mom (in her description) and a darker-skinned dad.
She now serves as a professor at the predominantly white and wealthy university in North Carolina and has implemented mandatory diversity and equity courses for students on campus. She also spends a lot of her time implementing and fostering equity initiatives on campus. Dr. Clark lives on her own and devotes herself to her work- her busyness was evident as I heard her email notification ring numerous times during our time together.
Establishing these mandatory courses came after a student, unprovoked, called Clark a bitch during her first week on campus. “I was ready to go, and I would ask my colleagues like, ‘What do I do? …the student called me this name.’ And people would say, ‘That doesn't really happen here,’” she recalled. It was this obviously racist instance that pushed her to create change at Elon, and her early experience of different treatment based on skin color prepared her for this.
Like most black people that grew up watching television, Dr. Clark noticed that only certain black people graced television screens. In her reality, young Clark noticed her lighter-skinned cousin always being referenced as “the pretty one.” The confusion grew when Clark’s mother explained that even she [Clark] might receive preferential treatment because of the shade of brown she was. “Um, and that was always weird to me cause, I…I never thought of myself as being…you know, targeted in that way,” she stuttered out. The confusion from many years ago was still plastered on her face and her hoop earrings swung as she tilted her head to find the words she was looking for. Eventually, she settled on labeling colorism as “a very odd psychological phenomenon.”
When the time came for Dr. Clark to settle on a career, she decided on being a reporter. She found herself learning in a newsroom and television station at a university in Florida. Her goal was to be in front of the camera as a reporter but her news director at the time thought differently. He suggested that she pursued producing, but to Dr. Clark, this meant she shouldn’t be in front of a camera. “I've always been very…self-conscious about my nose. And so I thought that's what it [was]. And so, I got really frustrated with that.”
Not knowing what to do next, she sought advice from two professors which led her to getting her doctorate and becoming a professor.
Making a name for herself at Elon University was not a difficult task since she was responsible for major diversity changes on the campus. However, everyone was not fully accepting of the changes Dr. Clark was making. She told me, “Some students are very ready for it, and some of my colleagues [are] very ready [and] doing the work. And then other people are like, ‘Are we still talking about this?’” When Dr. Clark stepped down as Chair of her department, it was because she had too many responsibilities- the position was taken over by Staci Saltz. In taking over the role, Saltz fully supported Clark’s implementation of DEI initiatives, and decided that she would continue to promote change in the best way she could since she understands the importance of representation as a former Film Studies major at Elon.
Saltz had nothing but impressive adjectives about her colleague, and said that her humbleness allows Clark to be genuine. “She's kind hearted beyond most people that I know. She does not know how amazing she is. …The person that goes into the classroom and cares about student success and learning is the same person that outside of the classroom cares about student wellbeing and success outside of the classroom.”
Though Dr. Clark admits that she is a workaholic, sometimes to the “point of illness”, what she does is necessary to the media industry.
Since being at Elon, Clark has developed an equity mindset in the classroom and teaching by recruiting faculty who have strong knowledge of racial equity and equity development. She has also implemented a racial equity course that will be mandatory for incoming students; this began in 2023.
While representation for many minority groups has increased over the years, there is still a long way to go. The New Jerseyite believes that more change on our television screens will come when production sets fully resemble true reality; that is what she wants the students she’s responsible for to understand.
“We have to help them create a strong foundation so that when they go out in the world, they can be problem solvers as opposed to problem makers, right?” said Dr. Clark.