I remember seeing Color Adjustment in early 1993 around the time that I was planning the Harvard Institute on Media Education. It was a film that invited viewers to consider the widely differing representations of African Americans on entertainment and news programming. I vividly remember the brutal beating of Rodney King -- was that immediately before or after this film came out? That hugely significant event made racial inequality a topic that was widely discussed by educators and media scholars. We even incorporated a close analysis of the event into the Summer Institute, and that resulted in my first documentary, Tuning in to Media.

During those days, most college teachers used VHS copies of documentaries to help students explore media's role in society. I remember that I asked my college library to buy Ethnic Notions and Tongues Untied and I used them both in my classes. But what made Color Adjustment so powerful was that it confronted how media representations uphold the economic underpinnings of American television and its job in selling the norms and values of consumer culture. The voices of producers, actors, and cultural critics provided substantial context for jump starting a nuanced discussion of capitalism and power in relation to race, class, and gender. But there were no easy answers here -- no heroes, villains, or victims  -- because Riggs presented ideas and points of view in ways that encouraged multiperspectival thinking.