To say that the media underrepresents minorities would be an understatement. While there are shows such as “How to Get Away with Murder” and “Blackish” that feature predominantly black casts, the silver-screen still proves to be very white. One Clemson alum wants to change that.
Enter “Undecided.”
“Undecided” is a YouTube web series that tells the story of three black students attending the fictional PWI (predominantly white institution) Southern State University (SSU). The students Zuri, Cameron and Alexis as they juggle their college dreams, struggles and their identities.
The former Tiger who created the series, Whitney Anderson, wanted to display her experience as a black woman at Clemson.
“… my partner Shandrea [Evans] and I were reminiscing over our college experiences,” Anderson said.
“We talked about what it meant to attend a PWI in the south and began to share different stories. We realized that we had some similarities as well as differences of course which made us wonder why no one had made a show about these kinds of things, our experience. We decided that we would make the show ourselves instead of waiting for someone else to do it. … We wanted to fill a void with this series,” Anderson said.
With that, “Undecided” became a reality. Filming for two days in Atlanta, Anderson and Evans made the series’ trailer.
The starring cast includes Evans, the co-creator and producer, who stars as Zuri. Described as “most likely to succeed,” Zuri is an accounting major at SSU who is struggling to put herself through college. Cameron, played by Greenville up-and-coming actor Micah J. Oliver, is a self-described “class clown” with intentions of going to med school. Diamond Mitchell portrays Alexis, a dependable girl who is unsure of what her path is.
Anderson has big goals for her and Evans’ project.
“As this series is told through the lens of 3 African-American students I hope to reach other people of color [POC] that know first-hand what it means to attend a PWI in the south.”
But reaching POC isn’t her only desire.
“I hope that this series will touch everyone from high school seniors to current college students and those out of college. Future college students will get a glimpse into college life, current college students should see some of their experiences reflected and college grads will get an opportunity to reminisce over college days.”
At Clemson, an example of a PWI, black students account for about six percent of the students in the 2014-15 academic year. And as the #SikesSitIn, a direct result of the racist vandalism as well as other instances, continues, Anderson hopes that the series will help facilitate change.
“As a Clemson alum it is extremely disappointing to see that hurtful acts such as these are continuing. Personally, this is one of the motivating factors behind why the “Undecided” series is so important to me. These are real problems facing black students at PWIs and through the series we will show an unfiltered representation of what it means to deal with these types of issues. Making real changes should be of paramount importance to the university and I’m proud of how the students have come together.”
Updates can be found by following @undecidedseries on Twitter or by going to undecidedseries.com. There will be a crowdfunding effort in the future.
View the trailer here!