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do videos of Black folks dying on camera help or harm?

Race Jones

Race Jones

gangster. grace. alchemy
I hate shaun King for various reasons, but the main one was him constantly wielding around police brutality videos.

im personally against the weaponization of Black pain for awareness. i am also against showcasing Black bodies in an effort to rehabilitate white ignorance/dominance

ppls need for “proof” is ahistorical atp. the proof has been recorded, typed up, and housed for centuries. there is no amount of proof that will affirm our humanity in an institutional Anti-Black society imo

i live in a constant state of outrage when it comes to the abuse thrusted on Black ppl, i dont need anymore pictures of videos at this stage in the game.

My question is: do these videos help or harm in the long run? and how many more videos of Black folks dying on camera does this society needs to see in order to garner systematic change?

either way, if folks need a video or a picture in order to empathize with victims of the state, they are the reason why that person is dead in the first place.
 
it should also be noted, watching Black victims die on camera is not only exploitative but pornographic for some. in her book Eating the Black Body: Miscegenation as Sexual Consumption in African American Literature and Culture Carlyle Van Thompson proposes that racial violence occurring both during slavery and beyond is often sexual and sadistic. “the sexualized racial violence that Black people experienced during the enslavement period and beyond constructs the trope of eating, which links the violence to vampirism- a human being becomes the source of another’s sustenance.” when people digest photos and videos of Black bodies being abused on camera, they are literally eating them limb for limb. these neo –lynching’s causes one to be predisposed to viewing Black people only as objects voided of thought and feelings.



imo.
 
I think ultimately it does more harm cuz you're forcing horrible and uncomfortable shit on ppl and itll just make them retreat....like when I was in school all these animal rights ppl would shove flyers in your face with fucked up pics of animals being abused all over it. None of that made me wana stop eating meat.

Idk I just dont like being in the position of forcing ppl to have to see my humanity. You already starting at a deficit and from a place of weakness. Idk what the solution is but just throwing atrocities in ppls faces (the ones that need to see it) doesnt seem to work.
 
I think it's truly unhealthy for us to keep seeing shit like this on a regular basis... so in that respect.. I don't think it's necessarily good for our collective mental health to continuously see shit like this....

On the other hand.. if these particular videos werent leaked to the public and that outrage didn't ensue as a result.. we might not have gotten the names of the racist pieces of shit that did this... or the racist prosecutors that had to recuse themselves... or the prosecutor who's hand was forced to actually try to call a grand jury as a result of the video being leaked.

Will any of this result in actual justice? If history is any indicator im leaning towards no.. but im hopeful these pieces of shit meet justice within the law... OR outside of it if the law fails us as it typically does
 
I can't speak for anybody but myself. Me personally, I stopped watching them shits a while ago I remember the Philando Castile video was the first one where I was like 'Na, I'm good. Not watching that shit.'.

You can only watch videos of people who look like you be gunned down in the street by agents of the government before you start to lose pieces of your humanity. And that's a big fear of mine.
 
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@Race Jones im curious how you feel/felt about Emmett Tills open casket...

Is it the fact that these videos are being shared to the world/public that's the problem as opposed to a closed group of people?

What is our recourse when we can see a video and surmise clear as day what happened.. and a racist judge and jury make a determination that doesn't represent the reality?
 
mryounggun said:
I can't speak for anybody but myself. Me personally, I stopped watching them shits a while ago I remember the Philando Castileone video was the first one where I was like 'Na, I'm good. Not watching that shit.'.

You can only watch videos of people who look like you be gunned down in the street by agents of the government before you start to lose pieces of your humanity. And that's a big fear of mine.
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Yea it just makes ppl wana ignore after a point, not work to change it.
 
I think it used to work like in Rodney King era or Civil rights era. But now it’s literally everyday we got a video and nothing changes. So now it just makes you mad or upset, scares kids a lot but teaches you not to ever trust cops.

Now if we could get inside footage of the crooked shit they do like thin blue line type of stuff I think that would be better but cops ain’t snitching on each other.
 
Ill let someone else breakdown the harm, im gon focus on if these videos help.

In theory, the idea of these videos would be that if enough white people, racist or not, see these videos, then it will finally change their perspective, show them the truth, and finally lead to change.

Its a good theory, but still just a theory.

Reality is much more different though. In reality, its almost impossible to get racist or indifferent whites to change their minds. No amount of videos will ever get a racist to be like oh I see it now, and then fight for social justice. Call it irrational, call it programming, it doesnt matter what you call it. Fact is majority of white people, and minorities that grew up around white people, cant objectively process the racism that african americans face. They will believe racism is not real in the face of hard facts.

They can watch back to back videos of white people with long guns yell at cops and go home without a charge and then a video of a unarmed black person get shot and killed, and not agree that there is a problem with cops and the justice system.

So looking at it that way, these videos definetly aint helping.
 
Inori said:
@Race Jones im curious how you feel/felt about Emmett Tills open casket...

Is it the fact that these videos are being shared to the world/public that's the problem as opposed to a closed group of people?

What is our recourse when we can see a video and surmise clear as day what happened.. and a racist judge and jury make a determination that doesn't represent the reality?
Click to expand...


hmmm to me, Emmett Till was necessary considering the times. an open casket exposed the entire world to the atrocities Black ppl faced at the hands of the state.

but, it’s not 1955. I don’t think we need to use Till as a precedent anymore... per se. plus the open casket was the mothers wishes, have we ever been informed of mike brown, walter scott, tamir rice family members wishes??

plus i want ppl to understand suffering and democratic action our not interdependent. suffering doesn't hold the power to garner systematic change. its imperative we understand that suffering and death did not give us "rights" it was leveraging the images of our suffering (Emmett till, Rosa being fingerprinted before going to jail, Montgomery Bus Boycott, March on Birmingham, voting rights march Mar. 7th 1965, The Birmingham children's crusade, being attacked by dogs and water hoses etc) that gave way to us being able access certain levels of freedom within society.


these videos that folks are using as “leverage” or “awareness” have done absouletly nothing but keep Black folks in a constant state of disemobodiment. perpetual decapitation.

we watch these videos, we grow angry, we wait/we march/we come up with hashtags/ and so often nothing happens or we see a cop be sentenced to jail-time —only to wake up to another cop shooting the next day/week/month. its a endless cycle and thats what scares me. the repetition of it all.

What is our recourse when we can see a video and surmise clear as day what happened.. and a racist judge and jury make a determination that doesn't represent the reality?


this is a great question and honestly idk. ummmm i try not to have an apathetic politic when it comes to shit like this but racism, police corruption and repression is so ingrained in society that i dont how it can ever be reformed.

as you may know, im for the complete abolishment of police and these violent institutions that have been railroading Black ppl for years.

thats the only way i see us being able to live comfortably.
 
mryounggun said:
I can't speak for anybody but myself. Me personally, I stopped watching them shits a while ago I remember the Philando Castileone video was the first one where I was like 'Na, I'm good. Not watching that shit.'.

You can only watch videos of people who look like you be gunned down in the street by agents of the government before you start to lose pieces of your humanity. And that's a big fear of mine.
Click to expand...


THIS!!!!!!!!!!
 
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