1 00:00:12,690 --> 00:00:15,510 So my name is Krista Lynes. I'm a professor 2 00:00:15,510 --> 00:00:17,610 in the Department of Communication Studies 3 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:21,540 at Concordia University. The work I do 4 00:00:21,540 --> 00:00:24,480 is largely around the political force of 5 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:27,420 media, and different kinds of artistic 6 00:00:27,420 --> 00:00:30,060 interventions as well, to enact social 7 00:00:30,060 --> 00:00:34,470 change. I'm recording this module as an 8 00:00:34,470 --> 00:00:37,320 unwitting settler colonial, racialized 9 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:40,290 white, on the unceded land of the Kanien 10 00:00:40,290 --> 00:00:46,950 ’kehá:ka Nation. What's occupied my 11 00:00:46,950 --> 00:00:50,160 thinking over a decade or more is a 12 00:00:50,190 --> 00:00:53,640 problem or a predicament. Which is that 13 00:00:53,940 --> 00:00:56,760 there's a vulnerability both in being 14 00:00:56,760 --> 00:01:00,930 seen, and not being seen. So, I'm 15 00:01:00,930 --> 00:01:02,640 interested in what the limits and the 16 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:06,210 powers are of images, and how we might be 17 00:01:06,210 --> 00:01:09,630 held responsible for the vulnerability of 18 00:01:09,630 --> 00:01:11,940 members of our community who are 19 00:01:11,940 --> 00:01:13,770 persecuted on the basis of their race, or 20 00:01:13,770 --> 00:01:16,200 their gender, or their sexuality, or their 21 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:21,870 citizenship status. So, this topic is 22 00:01:21,870 --> 00:01:25,020 really thinking about what we do about 23 00:01:25,020 --> 00:01:27,000 images and footage of police violence in 24 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,970 our contemporary moment. We're in late 25 00:01:30,030 --> 00:01:34,260 August 2020. We've just seen the traumatic 26 00:01:34,260 --> 00:01:36,780 footage of the shooting of Jacob Blake in 27 00:01:36,780 --> 00:01:40,440 Wisconsin, which follows on the heels of 28 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:42,390 the killing of George Floyd, Briana 29 00:01:42,390 --> 00:01:45,510 Taylor of Ahmaud Arbery of Tony McDade. 30 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:49,770 And so many of these instances of police 31 00:01:49,770 --> 00:01:53,520 violence are recorded by bystanders and 32 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:56,460 loved ones in the community. Thank 33 00:01:56,460 --> 00:01:59,220 goodness, because justice is hard to come 34 00:01:59,220 --> 00:02:02,400 by in the best of times. But as media 35 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,280 scholars, I think it's incumbent upon us 36 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:08,430 to think about what the cost is of this 37 00:02:08,430 --> 00:02:11,700 footage circulating on social media, and 38 00:02:11,700 --> 00:02:15,000 what responsibility we have, if and when 39 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,300 we watch it. So, the question that occupies 40 00:02:18,300 --> 00:02:20,610 me as a media studies scholar is what it 41 00:02:20,610 --> 00:02:24,210 means for this footage to exist, and what 42 00:02:24,210 --> 00:02:27,990 it means for us to watch this footage. And 43 00:02:27,990 --> 00:02:29,640 what it means for us to watch as Black 44 00:02:29,640 --> 00:02:33,330 viewers, as non Black People of Color. And 45 00:02:33,330 --> 00:02:37,020 as white viewers. The questions that I asked 46 00:02:37,020 --> 00:02:38,940 here what are the politics and the 47 00:02:38,970 --> 00:02:40,920 effective force of watching images of 48 00:02:40,920 --> 00:02:43,830 violence against Black and Indigenous and 49 00:02:43,830 --> 00:02:47,100 People of Color or BIPOC bodies? What is 50 00:02:47,100 --> 00:02:50,250 this visibility do and what can't it do? 51 00:02:51,210 --> 00:02:53,370 And as this slide makes clear, while I'm 52 00:02:53,370 --> 00:02:55,080 talking here about videos of police 53 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:58,110 violence, largely in the US context, and 54 00:02:58,110 --> 00:02:59,760 these are the the images that have 55 00:02:59,760 --> 00:03:01,740 galvanized the movements for racial 56 00:03:01,740 --> 00:03:04,680 justice around the world. I really need to 57 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:06,990 emphasize that police violence against 58 00:03:06,990 --> 00:03:10,500 BIPOC folks is rampant in Canada too. 59 00:03:10,500 --> 00:03:12,540 While the politics of images is different 60 00:03:12,540 --> 00:03:15,060 here than in the US. The question of 61 00:03:15,060 --> 00:03:18,390 trauma and accountability and justice 62 00:03:18,390 --> 00:03:20,790 that I'm trying to raise are here also applies 63 00:03:20,790 --> 00:03:24,060 to the Canadian context. So, I rely on 64 00:03:24,060 --> 00:03:26,580 these lists compiled on the one hand by 65 00:03:26,610 --> 00:03:29,250 Alia Chugtai and on the other hand 66 00:03:29,250 --> 00:03:32,760 by Desmond Cole, remembering Black on the 67 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:34,740 one hand, Black, Indigenous and other 68 00:03:34,740 --> 00:03:36,600 People of Color on the other killed by 69 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:40,470 police in both the American and the 70 00:03:40,470 --> 00:03:47,280 Canadian context. And I'm thinking this in 71 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:49,860 concert with a powerful work of the artist 72 00:03:49,860 --> 00:03:52,710 Carrie Mae Weems. She's an artist and a 73 00:03:52,710 --> 00:03:57,210 social activist, whose work has always 74 00:03:57,270 --> 00:04:00,720 asked the viewer to confront the legacy of 75 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:04,650 the slave trade, the eraser and the 76 00:04:04,650 --> 00:04:06,720 celebration of Black celebrity by white 77 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:09,270 narratives of popular culture and police 78 00:04:09,270 --> 00:04:12,030 brutality today.So, this image that we 79 00:04:12,030 --> 00:04:16,620 begin with is a rephotographed and enlarged 80 00:04:16,620 --> 00:04:19,140 rare 19th and early 20th century 81 00:04:19,140 --> 00:04:21,810 photographs of enslaved people. And what 82 00:04:21,810 --> 00:04:23,910 she did is she etched into the glass that 83 00:04:23,910 --> 00:04:27,330 frames the image, a series of phrases that 84 00:04:27,330 --> 00:04:30,030 were her thoughts about these images, as a 85 00:04:30,030 --> 00:04:32,310 way of giving voice to subjects that 86 00:04:32,310 --> 00:04:34,860 historically had no voice. And so here, 87 00:04:35,430 --> 00:04:37,200 it's the title of an exhibit that she 88 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:39,330 made. That's from here. I saw what 89 00:04:39,330 --> 00:04:44,010 happened and I cried and it's a really 90 00:04:44,010 --> 00:04:46,890 potent and very powerful statement from 91 00:04:46,890 --> 00:04:51,240 here. I saw what happened and I cried. My 92 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:53,520 point in starting with this is to 93 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:57,270 foreground the political possibilities and 94 00:04:57,270 --> 00:05:00,120 the psychic costs to BIPOC folks of 95 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:04,110 recording, and viewing, and sharing images 96 00:05:04,110 --> 00:05:04,200 of 97 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:04,980 violence, 98 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:07,950 and to undo the belief that these images 99 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:11,100 necessarily or forcibly solicit 100 00:05:11,340 --> 00:05:13,350 humanitarian sentiments for white 101 00:05:13,350 --> 00:05:16,830 audiences. So, I want to end by proposing 102 00:05:16,980 --> 00:05:20,100 new ways to watch this footage as allies 103 00:05:20,100 --> 00:05:24,180 to racial justice. To do this, I draw 104 00:05:24,180 --> 00:05:26,610 especially and indebted to Black 105 00:05:26,610 --> 00:05:29,910 scholarship, whose work site link in the 106 00:05:29,910 --> 00:05:32,850 shared resources. Elizabeth Alexander 107 00:05:32,850 --> 00:05:35,610 Herman Gray, Saidiya Hartman, David 108 00:05:35,610 --> 00:05:38,430 Marriott, Ellen Scott and others. I'm 109 00:05:38,430 --> 00:05:40,830 really indebted to their arguments and to 110 00:05:40,830 --> 00:05:42,330 their elucidations, which I'm going to 111 00:05:42,330 --> 00:05:46,890 draw on a lot in this paper today. So the 112 00:05:46,890 --> 00:05:48,750 first thing that I think I want to do is 113 00:05:48,750 --> 00:05:51,690 to contextualize the current moment, and 114 00:05:51,690 --> 00:05:54,120 to really emphasize that the images that 115 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:58,470 circulate today bear the trace of older 116 00:05:58,530 --> 00:06:02,760 galvanizing images that have really 117 00:06:03,090 --> 00:06:06,300 mobilized movements for Black lives, and 118 00:06:06,330 --> 00:06:08,460 that these same images have also risked 119 00:06:08,460 --> 00:06:10,650 consolidating and perpetuating racial 120 00:06:10,650 --> 00:06:14,130 violence. These are, of course, the 121 00:06:14,130 --> 00:06:16,590 photographs that circulated of Emmett 122 00:06:16,590 --> 00:06:18,990 Till's corpse following his brutal attack 123 00:06:18,990 --> 00:06:22,500 in Mississippi in 1955. And the video 124 00:06:22,500 --> 00:06:24,780 footage of Rodney King's beating by the 125 00:06:24,780 --> 00:06:29,400 police in Los Angeles in 1991. And I want 126 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:32,430 to hold together these two statements that 127 00:06:32,430 --> 00:06:36,240 are here on this slide. The statement that 128 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:38,310 Elizabeth Alexander makes that these are 129 00:06:38,310 --> 00:06:41,190 epic, and iconic instances of police 130 00:06:41,190 --> 00:06:43,980 violence and civilian violence, and 131 00:06:43,980 --> 00:06:48,360 killing of Black people, and also, that 132 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:50,580 they are a medium of descent of 133 00:06:50,580 --> 00:06:53,730 remembrance, and intentional history. So, a 134 00:06:53,730 --> 00:06:57,570 kind of both end argument, both a cost and 135 00:06:57,570 --> 00:06:59,550 a possibility, and that we have to hold 136 00:06:59,550 --> 00:07:04,110 these two things together. So first, 137 00:07:04,110 --> 00:07:05,880 Emmett Till I don't need to rehearse this 138 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:08,100 story. But of course, as many of you know, 139 00:07:08,100 --> 00:07:10,380 Emmett Till was a 14 year old who was sent 140 00:07:10,380 --> 00:07:12,990 from Chicago to Money, Mississippi to spend 141 00:07:12,990 --> 00:07:14,640 two weeks of his summer vacation with his 142 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:17,460 relatives. On the evening of August 143 00:07:17,460 --> 00:07:21,420 24 1955, he bought a pack of bubblegum 144 00:07:21,420 --> 00:07:23,850 from Carolyn Bryant, the white wife of a 145 00:07:23,850 --> 00:07:26,670 shopkeeper. She accused Till of making 146 00:07:26,670 --> 00:07:30,330 advances at her and we should as a side 147 00:07:30,330 --> 00:07:32,670 note, emphasize that this is part of the 148 00:07:32,670 --> 00:07:34,530 way that white women have been complicit 149 00:07:34,530 --> 00:07:36,870 in violence against Black men at the time 150 00:07:36,870 --> 00:07:40,350 and still today. For this Emmett Till was 151 00:07:40,350 --> 00:07:42,270 brutally murdered by Carolyn Bryant's 152 00:07:42,270 --> 00:07:44,640 husband and his half brother. The all 153 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:46,890 white all male jury found the two brothers 154 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:49,020 not guilty after a little more than an 155 00:07:49,020 --> 00:07:51,690 hour of deliberations. And when Emmett 156 00:07:51,690 --> 00:07:53,370 Till's mother had to identify the 157 00:07:53,370 --> 00:07:55,890 mutilated corpse of her son, she made a 158 00:07:55,890 --> 00:07:58,710 choice. That choice was to display her 159 00:07:58,710 --> 00:08:01,890 son's open casket at his funeral. And this 160 00:08:01,890 --> 00:08:04,830 picture of Till's body was printed in jet 161 00:08:04,830 --> 00:08:07,410 magazine and in the Black press, a 162 00:08:07,410 --> 00:08:11,100 challenge that Mamie Till Bradley posed to 163 00:08:11,100 --> 00:08:14,370 people to view the violence, and to 164 00:08:14,370 --> 00:08:17,580 behold, in it the face of American racism. 165 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,490 So many argue that this image of Till's 166 00:08:20,490 --> 00:08:22,560 corpse, which I'm not reproducing here, 167 00:08:22,860 --> 00:08:25,170 served as a political catalyst for Black 168 00:08:25,170 --> 00:08:26,520 Americans and for the civil rights 169 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:28,860 movement. And this is what Mamie TIll 170 00:08:28,860 --> 00:08:31,050 Bradley said about her her choice and her 171 00:08:31,050 --> 00:08:33,870 decision. I knew that I could talk for the 172 00:08:33,870 --> 00:08:35,760 rest of my life about what had happened to 173 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:38,370 my baby, I could explain it in great 174 00:08:38,370 --> 00:08:41,010 detail. I could describe what I saw laid 175 00:08:41,010 --> 00:08:43,500 out there on that slab at A. A. Rayner's one 176 00:08:43,500 --> 00:08:46,710 piece, one inch, one body part at a time, 177 00:08:47,430 --> 00:08:49,110 I could do all of that, and people still 178 00:08:49,110 --> 00:08:51,270 would not get the full impact. They would 179 00:08:51,270 --> 00:08:53,460 not be able to visualize what had happened 180 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:54,720 unless they were allowed to see the 181 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:57,120 results of what had happened. They had to 182 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:00,660 see what I had seen. Let the world see 183 00:09:01,260 --> 00:09:02,340 what I've seen. 184 00:09:04,409 --> 00:09:06,689 Christine Harold and Kevin DeLuca, write 185 00:09:06,689 --> 00:09:10,439 about the so called shockwaves produced by 186 00:09:10,439 --> 00:09:13,499 this image because of the forcefulness of 187 00:09:13,559 --> 00:09:16,799 an image of the human body in peril. But 188 00:09:16,799 --> 00:09:19,829 more poignantly, because of the ways in 189 00:09:19,829 --> 00:09:23,369 which Black communities in the US embraced 190 00:09:23,399 --> 00:09:26,399 this image, and foregrounded this image., 191 00:09:26,579 --> 00:09:28,589 So that rather than having the image 192 00:09:28,619 --> 00:09:31,319 imposed upon them, of violated Black 193 00:09:31,319 --> 00:09:32,999 bodies, for example, in lynching 194 00:09:32,999 --> 00:09:36,359 photographs, or in postcards, as a symbol 195 00:09:36,359 --> 00:09:38,129 of unmitigated white power, this was 196 00:09:38,129 --> 00:09:40,949 reclaimed, right reclaimed by Black 197 00:09:40,949 --> 00:09:43,919 communities. We should remember that this 198 00:09:43,919 --> 00:09:46,739 was only a few decades after the 199 00:09:46,739 --> 00:09:50,999 circulation of lynching postcards in US 200 00:09:50,999 --> 00:09:53,129 society, right. These were momentums of 201 00:09:53,129 --> 00:09:55,469 racial violence. They were images of 202 00:09:55,469 --> 00:09:58,199 racial threat, and they'd only been banned 203 00:09:58,199 --> 00:10:00,239 in the US in the early 20th century. And 204 00:10:00,239 --> 00:10:02,999 likely still circulated in parts of the US 205 00:10:02,999 --> 00:10:05,489 at the time in which Emmett Till's image 206 00:10:05,489 --> 00:10:09,179 circulated as well right these images of 207 00:10:09,179 --> 00:10:11,519 violence against Black people. These 208 00:10:11,519 --> 00:10:14,489 lynching photographs were incitements to 209 00:10:14,489 --> 00:10:18,119 violence, they circulated in the white 210 00:10:18,119 --> 00:10:20,549 community is evidence of white supremacy. 211 00:10:22,379 --> 00:10:24,119 And I raised this point because it shows 212 00:10:24,119 --> 00:10:26,519 how powerful the force of circulating 213 00:10:26,519 --> 00:10:29,429 one's own image of claiming the quote with 214 00:10:29,429 --> 00:10:32,189 the corpses, one's kin, was for Black 215 00:10:32,189 --> 00:10:35,819 audiences, right. It shows us that 216 00:10:35,819 --> 00:10:37,649 these images of violence against Black 217 00:10:37,649 --> 00:10:40,409 bodies are very, very far from 218 00:10:40,409 --> 00:10:43,529 guaranteeing solicitations of sympathy, or 219 00:10:43,529 --> 00:10:46,799 calls to action or rage. In fact, white 220 00:10:46,799 --> 00:10:49,289 audiences historically, were invited to 221 00:10:49,289 --> 00:10:52,169 see images of violence as symbols of white 222 00:10:52,169 --> 00:10:55,499 community, and symbols of solidarity. And 223 00:10:55,499 --> 00:10:56,999 this will be important when we think about 224 00:10:56,999 --> 00:10:58,289 the contemporary moment and the 225 00:10:58,289 --> 00:11:01,199 responsibility of people like me who are 226 00:11:01,199 --> 00:11:03,899 racialized white. That we have towards 227 00:11:03,899 --> 00:11:06,419 images of violence, right? Because this 228 00:11:06,419 --> 00:11:09,329 history informs what it means to look as a 229 00:11:09,329 --> 00:11:16,739 white subject today. My second instance, 230 00:11:16,739 --> 00:11:18,539 historical instance is the footage of the 231 00:11:18,539 --> 00:11:22,019 Rodney King beating. Elizabeth Alexander, 232 00:11:22,019 --> 00:11:24,479 who I'll turn to again next to talk about 233 00:11:24,479 --> 00:11:26,399 cell phone footage of police violence, 234 00:11:26,609 --> 00:11:29,639 wrote a really important article in 1994 235 00:11:29,879 --> 00:11:32,279 called: Can you be Black and look at this?, 236 00:11:32,339 --> 00:11:34,049 and this is an article that I've put in 237 00:11:34,049 --> 00:11:36,149 the resources as well. That's about the 238 00:11:36,149 --> 00:11:38,519 force of the footage of the beatings of 239 00:11:38,519 --> 00:11:42,329 Rodney King by the LA police in 1991. We 240 00:11:42,329 --> 00:11:43,829 have to remember that this was a time 241 00:11:43,829 --> 00:11:46,259 before social media right where the video 242 00:11:46,259 --> 00:11:49,619 footage played over and over and over 243 00:11:49,619 --> 00:11:51,809 again on national television. For a 244 00:11:51,809 --> 00:11:55,079 mainstream American audience. It was very 245 00:11:55,079 --> 00:11:57,629 often framed through a court TV case where 246 00:11:57,629 --> 00:12:00,779 the footage was slowed down sped up, 247 00:12:02,069 --> 00:12:05,579 sliced, interpreted with adjectives for 248 00:12:05,579 --> 00:12:09,209 King like buffed out or probable ex con, 249 00:12:09,419 --> 00:12:11,729 lashing out like a wounded animal or 250 00:12:11,729 --> 00:12:15,359 combative, right. Alexander explained 251 00:12:15,359 --> 00:12:18,839 that for BIPOC audiences this footage in 252 00:12:18,839 --> 00:12:22,529 her terms came to reside in the flesh as 253 00:12:22,529 --> 00:12:25,889 forms of memory reactivated and 254 00:12:25,889 --> 00:12:28,589 articulated at moments of collective 255 00:12:28,589 --> 00:12:32,789 spectatorship. She said the white authored 256 00:12:32,789 --> 00:12:34,979 national narrative about King the one that 257 00:12:34,979 --> 00:12:39,149 played on TV contradicted the histories, 258 00:12:39,209 --> 00:12:40,559 their bodies knew. 259 00:12:42,389 --> 00:12:44,519 Alexander raises the point that while 260 00:12:44,519 --> 00:12:46,709 sympathetic white colleagues said they too 261 00:12:46,709 --> 00:12:49,079 were nauseated and traumatized by watching 262 00:12:49,079 --> 00:12:51,419 the beatings. In doing so they were 263 00:12:51,419 --> 00:12:53,519 exempting themselves from the category of 264 00:12:53,519 --> 00:12:55,409 the oppressor through this kind of 265 00:12:55,409 --> 00:12:58,469 parasympathetic response. And Alexander 266 00:12:58,469 --> 00:13:00,959 emphasizes that they should not erase the 267 00:13:00,959 --> 00:13:03,569 fact that traumatized Black viewers were 268 00:13:03,569 --> 00:13:07,649 uniquely taught what Alexander calls and 269 00:13:07,649 --> 00:13:11,099 this is a quote from her: “A sorry lesson of 270 00:13:11,099 --> 00:13:14,969 their continual physical vulnerability in 271 00:13:14,969 --> 00:13:17,459 the United States” and rather than 272 00:13:17,459 --> 00:13:19,559 reproduce the images of the Rodney King 273 00:13:19,559 --> 00:13:21,389 beating, what I'm reproducing here are two 274 00:13:21,389 --> 00:13:24,269 images from the Whitney Biennial of 1993, 275 00:13:24,299 --> 00:13:26,549 which is a major art exhibition in the US. 276 00:13:26,969 --> 00:13:29,189 It was also called the race biennial, and 277 00:13:29,189 --> 00:13:31,049 it was a space where a lot of artists of 278 00:13:31,049 --> 00:13:36,179 color were making provocations about the 279 00:13:36,179 --> 00:13:38,999 racial politics in the 1990s in the US, 280 00:13:39,239 --> 00:13:41,519 and the Rodney King footage was actually 281 00:13:41,519 --> 00:13:44,369 displayed in the space of the exhibit at 282 00:13:44,369 --> 00:13:47,009 the Whitney Museum alongside other works, 283 00:13:47,009 --> 00:13:49,589 including these two, Daniel Joseph 284 00:13:49,589 --> 00:13:52,349 Martinez museum tags, which are those tags 285 00:13:52,349 --> 00:13:54,089 that you pin to your clothes when you 286 00:13:54,089 --> 00:13:56,129 enter into museum to show that you've paid 287 00:13:56,309 --> 00:13:58,679 but they all break down and say the 288 00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:00,599 statement I can't imagine ever wanting to 289 00:14:00,599 --> 00:14:03,179 be white. And David Hammons: “How do you 290 00:14:03,179 --> 00:14:06,149 like me now?” A picture of a white Jesse 291 00:14:06,149 --> 00:14:08,219 Jackson that was also included in the 292 00:14:08,219 --> 00:14:10,139 Whitney Biennial, biennial of that 293 00:14:10,139 --> 00:14:11,849 time. So it really shows the ways in which 294 00:14:11,849 --> 00:14:14,699 the Rodney King video became part of the 295 00:14:14,699 --> 00:14:16,709 public imaginary and part of the racial 296 00:14:16,709 --> 00:14:21,419 politics of the early 1990s. So, I want to 297 00:14:21,419 --> 00:14:24,689 return to this, this twin predicament of 298 00:14:24,689 --> 00:14:27,269 Elizabeth Alexander and Ellen Scott, the 299 00:14:27,269 --> 00:14:30,629 idea that these images are epic and iconic 300 00:14:30,629 --> 00:14:34,289 instances of police violence, and a medium 301 00:14:34,289 --> 00:14:37,469 of dissent, remembrance, intentional 302 00:14:37,469 --> 00:14:45,299 history, both at once, right. 303 00:14:45,359 --> 00:14:47,609 Alexander, Elizabeth Alexander has recently 304 00:14:47,609 --> 00:14:49,889 written more about the images of police 305 00:14:49,889 --> 00:14:52,079 violence that have emerged in the 306 00:14:52,079 --> 00:14:54,989 contemporary moment. She wrote an 307 00:14:54,989 --> 00:14:56,639 article in The New Yorker called the 308 00:14:56,639 --> 00:14:59,609 Trayvon generation and she says 309 00:14:59,609 --> 00:15:01,379 Black bodies in pain for public 310 00:15:01,379 --> 00:15:03,659 consumption have been an American national 311 00:15:03,659 --> 00:15:05,729 spectacle for centuries in one way or 312 00:15:05,729 --> 00:15:07,889 another. Black people also have been 313 00:15:07,889 --> 00:15:10,559 looking, forging a traumatized collective 314 00:15:10,559 --> 00:15:13,319 historical memory, which is reinvoked at 315 00:15:13,319 --> 00:15:16,319 contemporary sites of conflict. There's an 316 00:15:16,319 --> 00:15:19,319 amazing interview between Salamishah 317 00:15:19,319 --> 00:15:22,259 Tillet and Elizabeth Alexander and the 318 00:15:22,259 --> 00:15:24,899 New York times this past June. It 319 00:15:24,899 --> 00:15:27,839 really highlights the cost of watching and 320 00:15:27,839 --> 00:15:30,089 recording police violence for Black 321 00:15:30,089 --> 00:15:31,499 communities. I think it's something 322 00:15:31,499 --> 00:15:33,239 that we all really need to pay attention 323 00:15:33,239 --> 00:15:35,519 to and think about. That these images 324 00:15:35,519 --> 00:15:37,409 don't emerge out of the ether, that they 325 00:15:37,409 --> 00:15:39,629 emerge out of bystander witnesses who are 326 00:15:39,629 --> 00:15:41,849 very often part of the same communities 327 00:15:41,849 --> 00:15:44,699 that are subject to this violence. When 328 00:15:44,699 --> 00:15:47,099 they're talking about Darnella Frazier, who 329 00:15:47,099 --> 00:15:49,829 is the 17 year old girl, whose phone 330 00:15:49,829 --> 00:15:53,039 recordings of George Floyd went viral, and 331 00:15:53,039 --> 00:15:55,229 reignited Black Lives Matter movements. She 332 00:15:55,229 --> 00:15:59,159 says, mainly, I worried about Frazier and 333 00:15:59,159 --> 00:16:01,919 how her fate as an African American girl 334 00:16:02,339 --> 00:16:04,349 was forever tethered to those eight 335 00:16:04,349 --> 00:16:07,409 minutes and 46 seconds. She not only 336 00:16:07,409 --> 00:16:10,559 captured his death, but actively rejected 337 00:16:10,559 --> 00:16:12,269 the attempts that sought to cover up the 338 00:16:12,269 --> 00:16:15,359 police brutality. And Alexander says "I 339 00:16:15,359 --> 00:16:17,939 can't imagine that proximity and she 340 00:16:17,939 --> 00:16:22,079 keeps filming. A question and a concern 341 00:16:22,079 --> 00:16:24,809 that we must ask is who has this child?" 342 00:16:27,299 --> 00:16:31,169 Alexander calls the people from Darnella 343 00:16:31,169 --> 00:16:34,289 Frazier's generation, the Trayvon 344 00:16:34,289 --> 00:16:36,809 generation. She says they watch these 345 00:16:36,809 --> 00:16:38,669 violations up close and on their cell 346 00:16:38,669 --> 00:16:41,639 phones so many times over. They watch them 347 00:16:41,639 --> 00:16:44,939 in near real time. They watch them criss- 348 00:16:44,939 --> 00:16:47,099 crossed and concentrated, they watch them 349 00:16:47,129 --> 00:16:49,859 on the school bus. They watch them under 350 00:16:49,859 --> 00:16:52,679 the covers at night. They watch them off 351 00:16:52,679 --> 00:16:54,359 and outside of the presence of adults who 352 00:16:54,359 --> 00:16:56,279 love them were charged with keeping them 353 00:16:56,279 --> 00:16:58,559 safe in body and soul. 354 00:17:00,990 --> 00:17:03,540 So, I think it's clear that Black viewers 355 00:17:03,540 --> 00:17:06,510 understand this. They understand the cost 356 00:17:06,510 --> 00:17:08,790 and the compromise and the history and the 357 00:17:08,790 --> 00:17:12,480 trauma of these images existing. But I 358 00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,090 think white viewers, not only pay 359 00:17:15,090 --> 00:17:17,460 insufficient attention to the cost of 360 00:17:17,460 --> 00:17:19,470 having these vile images of violence 361 00:17:19,470 --> 00:17:22,680 circulating but to our complicity in the 362 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:25,380 violence of looking and the violence of 363 00:17:25,380 --> 00:17:28,380 the right we've had historically to look 364 00:17:28,500 --> 00:17:31,530 Elizabeth Alexander says 365 00:17:31,530 --> 00:17:33,960 with George Floyd's murder it played 366 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:37,290 on television 5000 times. So back to the 367 00:17:37,290 --> 00:17:39,450 question of who's watching and what 368 00:17:39,450 --> 00:17:43,050 happens when Black people watch? To inform, 369 00:17:43,110 --> 00:17:45,330 is one thing to bear witness is another 370 00:17:45,330 --> 00:17:47,970 thing. But just to roll the video without 371 00:17:47,970 --> 00:17:50,280 a moment that says a life was taken here. 372 00:17:50,610 --> 00:17:53,190 A person was dehumanized here in this way 373 00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:55,230 that Black people have been dehumanized 374 00:17:55,230 --> 00:17:57,540 throughout our history. Seeing is 375 00:17:57,540 --> 00:18:00,480 important and helps you understand but I 376 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:02,430 think the repetition of that image without 377 00:18:02,430 --> 00:18:04,140 thought to who's watching it and how it 378 00:18:04,140 --> 00:18:06,150 affects them is something that we could 379 00:18:06,150 --> 00:18:07,260 work on a bit. 380 00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:15,089 These are the two quotes by Salamishah 381 00:18:15,089 --> 00:18:17,339 Tillet and Elizabeth Alexander, 382 00:18:17,339 --> 00:18:19,349 worried about Frazier and how her fate as 383 00:18:19,349 --> 00:18:21,089 an African American girl was forever 384 00:18:21,089 --> 00:18:23,249 tethered to those eight minutes and 46 385 00:18:23,249 --> 00:18:25,949 seconds, and who has this child? 386 00:18:31,980 --> 00:18:33,750 So I raised the question, what's the 387 00:18:33,750 --> 00:18:40,590 difference here? I cover this to highlight 388 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,530 for those of us who don't live the footage 389 00:18:43,530 --> 00:18:45,540 of police violence in our bodies in the 390 00:18:45,540 --> 00:18:48,630 same way, as those who have been, in 391 00:18:48,630 --> 00:18:51,090 Alexander's words "taught the story lesson 392 00:18:51,450 --> 00:18:54,030 of their continued physical vulnerability 393 00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:57,990 in North America and beyond." For those of 394 00:18:57,990 --> 00:19:00,180 us who don't live this footage in this 395 00:19:00,180 --> 00:19:03,330 way, we have to think about the cost and 396 00:19:03,330 --> 00:19:06,210 the potency of this footage and we have 397 00:19:06,210 --> 00:19:08,700 to think as well about the differential 398 00:19:08,700 --> 00:19:10,980 right to be protected from images of 399 00:19:10,980 --> 00:19:14,160 violence. In other words, the right for 400 00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:16,380 some to be protected from images of 401 00:19:16,380 --> 00:19:18,150 violence to their community, and for 402 00:19:18,150 --> 00:19:20,880 others not to be protected, right. So what 403 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:23,250 you see in the slide, are two common 404 00:19:23,250 --> 00:19:25,470 strategies for representing violent death 405 00:19:25,470 --> 00:19:28,620 in the news. On the left is the footage of 406 00:19:28,620 --> 00:19:30,840 the killing of George Floyd, which is 407 00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:32,580 foregrounded by a warning, right? This 408 00:19:32,580 --> 00:19:34,650 video includes scenes of graphic violence, 409 00:19:34,650 --> 00:19:37,650 and yet shows those images and on the 410 00:19:37,650 --> 00:19:39,990 right, is an image from the New York Times 411 00:19:39,990 --> 00:19:42,780 and an image from the Guardian. Both of 412 00:19:42,930 --> 00:19:45,960 which deal with the killing of American 413 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:49,470 contractors in Fallujah, neither of which 414 00:19:49,470 --> 00:19:51,720 decided to show any of the footage of 415 00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:53,940 those American soldiers. They 416 00:19:53,940 --> 00:19:58,020 didn't actually make - allow people to make 417 00:19:58,020 --> 00:19:59,340 the choice about whether they were going 418 00:19:59,340 --> 00:20:00,960 to view them or not. They simply withdrew 419 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:04,080 them because the editors acknowledge that 420 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:06,690 choice might not be a sufficient mechanism 421 00:20:06,810 --> 00:20:09,060 for assessing the costs of images of 422 00:20:09,060 --> 00:20:13,470 violence. So we need to think about a few 423 00:20:13,470 --> 00:20:16,680 things in relationship to all of this. 424 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:19,530 These are the key questions that I ask out 425 00:20:19,530 --> 00:20:21,300 of this history and out of our 426 00:20:21,300 --> 00:20:22,740 contemporary moment where we're thinking 427 00:20:22,740 --> 00:20:25,110 about images of police violence. And the 428 00:20:25,110 --> 00:20:27,630 first, is how does media of police violence 429 00:20:27,660 --> 00:20:31,020 against BIPOC bodies circulate differently 430 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:35,160 than for white bodies? Two, is how can we 431 00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:38,010 establish a right to not see that media? 432 00:20:38,850 --> 00:20:43,020 And three, is how can seeing or watching be 433 00:20:43,020 --> 00:20:44,850 part of a larger commitment to anti- 434 00:20:44,850 --> 00:20:48,060 racism? and I'm going to deal with each of 435 00:20:48,060 --> 00:20:49,890 these questions in turn by pointing to 436 00:20:49,890 --> 00:20:53,580 different resources and, and readings and 437 00:20:53,580 --> 00:20:56,370 arguments that help us to parse this. So 438 00:20:56,370 --> 00:20:58,380 for the first question about how does 439 00:20:58,380 --> 00:21:00,390 media of police violence circulate 440 00:21:00,390 --> 00:21:01,890 differently for Black and for white 441 00:21:01,890 --> 00:21:05,400 bodies? I really rely on the work of 442 00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:09,090 Sophia Noble. Her book 'Algorithms of 443 00:21:09,090 --> 00:21:11,400 Oppression', I can't recommend it enough. 444 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:14,340 It's so amazing. She highlights how 445 00:21:14,370 --> 00:21:17,760 algorithms reinforce oppressive social 446 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,220 relationships through a process that she 447 00:21:20,220 --> 00:21:23,940 calls "technological redlining." So in 448 00:21:23,940 --> 00:21:26,010 an article specifically on Black Death and 449 00:21:26,010 --> 00:21:29,010 Dying online, she argues that videos of 450 00:21:29,010 --> 00:21:31,380 Black Death circulate in these 451 00:21:31,380 --> 00:21:33,990 multinational media platforms as a kind of 452 00:21:33,990 --> 00:21:36,930 commercial property. A common kind 453 00:21:36,930 --> 00:21:38,550 of commercial property that works in the 454 00:21:38,550 --> 00:21:40,590 service of the consolidation of power, 455 00:21:40,890 --> 00:21:42,540 even as it raises consciousness and 456 00:21:42,540 --> 00:21:44,220 awareness for the lack of justice for 457 00:21:44,220 --> 00:21:47,940 Black people in North America. And so she 458 00:21:47,940 --> 00:21:50,730 says, and this is from the article that 459 00:21:50,730 --> 00:21:53,670 I've cited in the resources, “while certain 460 00:21:53,670 --> 00:21:55,860 types of objectionable material is 461 00:21:55,860 --> 00:21:58,110 filtered out a view by software human 462 00:21:58,110 --> 00:22:00,780 beings, images of African Americans dead 463 00:22:00,780 --> 00:22:02,880 and dying are often the titillating object 464 00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,520 of persistent media spectacle. And such 465 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:08,640 material is hyper circulated, and often 466 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:11,370 goes viral through online media platforms”. 467 00:22:11,790 --> 00:22:13,590 "What we need is a framework to 468 00:22:13,590 --> 00:22:16,290 contextualize how social media Foster's 469 00:22:16,290 --> 00:22:19,380 symbolic death and post-traumatic stress." 470 00:22:19,410 --> 00:22:21,330 right, we need to understand this 471 00:22:21,330 --> 00:22:25,350 differential circulation of the images and 472 00:22:25,350 --> 00:22:27,030 the footage of violence against certain 473 00:22:27,030 --> 00:22:28,860 bodies because of the threat that such 474 00:22:28,860 --> 00:22:33,390 images make to people who are watching 475 00:22:33,390 --> 00:22:35,070 them, right and the persistent 476 00:22:35,070 --> 00:22:37,620 vulnerability that's the message given 477 00:22:37,620 --> 00:22:40,470 from those images themselves. She says 478 00:22:40,470 --> 00:22:42,810 that viral videos work as kinds of 479 00:22:42,810 --> 00:22:45,180 surveillance technologies, and that 480 00:22:45,180 --> 00:22:46,560 they're rooted in this kind of 481 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:49,560 emancipatory logic, that information must 482 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:51,630 be free, right, that we must have the 483 00:22:51,630 --> 00:22:54,300 right to see and the right to circulate. 484 00:22:54,510 --> 00:22:56,670 And she says those rights to see and to 485 00:22:56,670 --> 00:23:00,210 circulate are in her terms over afforded 486 00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:04,380 to white Americans. So Ellen Scott argues 487 00:23:04,380 --> 00:23:06,060 that images of police violence and 488 00:23:06,060 --> 00:23:07,950 killings can be made to serve various 489 00:23:07,950 --> 00:23:10,590 kinds of spectatorship. They can fuel a 490 00:23:10,590 --> 00:23:13,500 culture that's often excited by violent 491 00:23:13,500 --> 00:23:16,560 action spectacles, or on the other hand, 492 00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:18,360 they may be used to motivate civil rights 493 00:23:18,360 --> 00:23:20,550 activism and prove government wrong. So we 494 00:23:20,550 --> 00:23:23,310 need to again think both this incidence of 495 00:23:23,310 --> 00:23:25,740 violence and this potential of the media 496 00:23:25,740 --> 00:23:28,410 itself. So that's the first point that I 497 00:23:28,410 --> 00:23:29,220 was raising. 498 00:23:29,970 --> 00:23:33,000 The second question is really about the 499 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:36,210 right not to see the right not to see a 500 00:23:36,210 --> 00:23:38,100 set of images, I'm just going to move my 501 00:23:38,100 --> 00:23:40,530 screen so that you can see the quote, 502 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:43,860 there's an amazing article by Nicola 503 00:23:43,860 --> 00:23:47,040 Hardy, called 'Death and Done' and that's 504 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,680 also in the resources and she begins this 505 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:54,000 really powerful account with an experience 506 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,580 of scrolling through her twitter feed on 507 00:23:56,580 --> 00:24:01,020 July 6 2016, when the footage of Philando 508 00:24:01,020 --> 00:24:03,240 Castillo's murder started playing 509 00:24:03,270 --> 00:24:07,050 automatically. And this is because on June 510 00:24:07,050 --> 00:24:10,860 16 2015, Twitter introduced a new feature 511 00:24:10,860 --> 00:24:14,310 called autoplay. When a user scrolls 512 00:24:14,310 --> 00:24:16,320 through their timeline and sees a video, 513 00:24:16,470 --> 00:24:18,390 that content will begin to automatically 514 00:24:18,390 --> 00:24:21,180 play where while muted, and if you click 515 00:24:21,180 --> 00:24:23,490 on the video, it'll bring the user into a 516 00:24:23,490 --> 00:24:26,610 full screen view with sound and continue 517 00:24:26,610 --> 00:24:29,610 playing. So Al Hadi, who was sitting at 518 00:24:29,610 --> 00:24:32,940 her desk in Toronto, unwittingly entered 519 00:24:32,940 --> 00:24:35,220 into the space of Falando Castillo's 520 00:24:35,220 --> 00:24:38,910 death. She says, "as a journalist, I think 521 00:24:38,910 --> 00:24:41,700 about this, the impulse to bear witness in 522 00:24:41,700 --> 00:24:44,310 order to produce testimony. But I don't 523 00:24:44,310 --> 00:24:46,350 need to press play and watch death to feel 524 00:24:46,350 --> 00:24:49,260 what it means in my own Black body. Before 525 00:24:49,260 --> 00:24:50,580 I could figure out what I was seeing, I 526 00:24:50,580 --> 00:24:53,160 was watching a man's dying moments. I 527 00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:55,620 didn't want to watch Castillo's death, or 528 00:24:55,620 --> 00:24:59,820 any of the other deaths on film." And she 529 00:24:59,820 --> 00:25:02,130 used This is a launch point to reflect on 530 00:25:02,130 --> 00:25:04,650 these new technologies that bring Black 531 00:25:04,650 --> 00:25:07,740 Death to one's social media feed, cellphone 532 00:25:07,740 --> 00:25:10,440 cameras, social media networks, dashboard 533 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,440 cams, body cams. All of these other 534 00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:15,540 technologies, she says are actually 535 00:25:15,540 --> 00:25:18,510 incriminated in racist acts of violence 536 00:25:18,510 --> 00:25:20,940 towards Black bodies, right. And these 537 00:25:20,940 --> 00:25:22,710 technologies have failed to result in 538 00:25:22,710 --> 00:25:29,490 safety for Black people. And instead, she 539 00:25:29,490 --> 00:25:32,250 draws on this powerful quote by the Black 540 00:25:32,310 --> 00:25:34,890 audio collective filmmaker John Acomfrah 541 00:25:35,340 --> 00:25:37,560 about the "digitopic", which is the 542 00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:41,430 digital and the utopic. Moments when 543 00:25:41,430 --> 00:25:44,040 demands for the impossible become the 544 00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:47,160 harbingers of new modes, new relations, 545 00:25:47,340 --> 00:25:49,320 new systems for manufacturing and 546 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:51,690 accelerating the indexical implications of 547 00:25:51,690 --> 00:25:54,930 the moving image. And the examples that 548 00:25:54,990 --> 00:25:58,680 El-Hadi gives for this digitopic, digitopic 549 00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:00,480 moment for this digitopia, that 550 00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,810 might assert the right not to see, designs 551 00:26:03,810 --> 00:26:06,030 to blank out or remove images of dead 552 00:26:06,030 --> 00:26:09,570 Black bodies automatically, or prevent the 553 00:26:09,570 --> 00:26:12,360 digital manipulation of images of Black 554 00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:15,480 bodies. Botts designed to limit the 555 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:17,430 replication and distribution of Black 556 00:26:17,430 --> 00:26:19,350 bodies without the consent of the victim's 557 00:26:19,350 --> 00:26:21,810 family. So remember, when I was talking 558 00:26:21,810 --> 00:26:24,210 about Emmett Till the circulation of the 559 00:26:24,210 --> 00:26:26,070 image of Emmett Till was sanctioned by his 560 00:26:26,070 --> 00:26:28,380 mother and claimed by his community, 561 00:26:28,470 --> 00:26:30,090 right, there's a really big difference 562 00:26:30,090 --> 00:26:31,950 between that and image that circulates 563 00:26:31,950 --> 00:26:33,690 loosely through the free flow of 564 00:26:33,690 --> 00:26:36,900 information on social media, perhaps 565 00:26:36,900 --> 00:26:39,960 browser extensions that can sense death, 566 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:42,540 and add another layer of complexity to the 567 00:26:42,540 --> 00:26:45,870 autoplay feature settings. But these are 568 00:26:45,870 --> 00:26:47,760 all possibilities for thinking about how 569 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:50,760 we might do media activism to reduce the 570 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:53,520 impact and the trauma of images of police 571 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,010 violence, while still using the potency of 572 00:26:56,010 --> 00:26:59,520 those forms of evidence, without having, 573 00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:01,470 forcing people to watch them or to see 574 00:27:01,470 --> 00:27:03,690 them. And the next slide that I'm going to 575 00:27:03,690 --> 00:27:06,240 show is potentially - and I just want to give a 576 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:07,890 trigger warning to it. It's an art piece 577 00:27:07,890 --> 00:27:10,470 by Pat Ward Williams, that includes a 578 00:27:10,470 --> 00:27:12,660 picture of a lynching. And so I want I 579 00:27:12,660 --> 00:27:15,540 want to say that before I before I show 580 00:27:15,540 --> 00:27:19,620 it. And I use this to try and talk about 581 00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:22,890 what watching or not watching might 582 00:27:22,890 --> 00:27:26,130 mean as a commitment to anti-racism. And I 583 00:27:26,130 --> 00:27:29,130 call this watching not watching or 584 00:27:29,370 --> 00:27:34,260 somebody do something. This is a really 585 00:27:34,260 --> 00:27:37,170 powerful artwork by Pat Ward Williams 586 00:27:37,170 --> 00:27:42,180 called accused blowtorch padlock. And it's 587 00:27:42,180 --> 00:27:44,100 an image that she took with a series of 588 00:27:44,100 --> 00:27:46,170 photographs that were reproduced in Life 589 00:27:46,170 --> 00:27:50,010 magazine. And she looks at the picture and 590 00:27:50,010 --> 00:27:53,040 can't bear to think about the conditions 591 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:55,170 of the production of those images. And so 592 00:27:55,170 --> 00:27:57,330 she scrolls across in a kind of 593 00:27:57,330 --> 00:28:00,660 chalkboard, like it's a lesson. "Can you be 594 00:28:00,660 --> 00:28:02,850 Black and look at this without fear." And 595 00:28:02,850 --> 00:28:04,320 that's the title of the Elizabeth 596 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:06,510 Alexander piece about the Rodney King 597 00:28:06,750 --> 00:28:09,660 video, right? Who was the photographer? 598 00:28:09,990 --> 00:28:12,780 Who took this picture? Could he just as 599 00:28:12,780 --> 00:28:16,380 easily have let the men go? Who took this 600 00:28:16,380 --> 00:28:19,350 picture? How can this photograph exist? 601 00:28:19,830 --> 00:28:21,750 Somebody do something? 602 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:26,100 Elizabeth Alexander says that Pat Ward 603 00:28:26,100 --> 00:28:28,230 Williams asked not just how did this 604 00:28:28,230 --> 00:28:31,050 happen? But what did it mean for a white 605 00:28:31,050 --> 00:28:34,470 person to watch it and to record it? And 606 00:28:34,470 --> 00:28:38,790 to not try and be helpful? So what I'm 607 00:28:38,790 --> 00:28:41,280 suggesting, and this is my third point, as 608 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:43,710 a white viewer thinking about the position 609 00:28:43,710 --> 00:28:46,830 of white viewership is that we must 610 00:28:46,830 --> 00:28:49,860 respond to the hope that these instances 611 00:28:49,860 --> 00:28:52,950 of violence can pierce a hole in white 612 00:28:52,950 --> 00:28:55,290 fantasies that we live in a post-racial 613 00:28:55,290 --> 00:28:58,320 society. It means we need to move beyond 614 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:00,720 sadness, and we need to move even beyond 615 00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:04,110 outrage towards a real commitment to Black 616 00:29:04,110 --> 00:29:05,220 Lives Matter-ing. 617 00:29:07,650 --> 00:29:11,820 How do we do this? I really rely a lot on 618 00:29:11,820 --> 00:29:13,830 the work of Ariella Azoulay, and she has a 619 00:29:13,830 --> 00:29:15,330 really potent book called “The Civil 620 00:29:15,330 --> 00:29:18,180 Contract of Photography. She sees the 621 00:29:18,210 --> 00:29:21,000 image as the site of a contract between co- 622 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,700 citizens, the people who record them, the 623 00:29:23,700 --> 00:29:25,350 people who watch them and the people who 624 00:29:25,350 --> 00:29:26,100 are figured in 625 00:29:26,100 --> 00:29:26,490 them. 626 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:29,370 And she says that the civil contract is 627 00:29:29,370 --> 00:29:31,380 not about seeing these images as a space 628 00:29:31,380 --> 00:29:34,410 of empathy or of shame or pity or of 629 00:29:34,410 --> 00:29:36,570 compassion, but as a space of 630 00:29:36,570 --> 00:29:39,720 responsibility, and a space of obligation. 631 00:29:40,650 --> 00:29:42,840 It's a space where you have to declare 632 00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:45,330 that those who are figgered in the image 633 00:29:45,359 --> 00:29:48,899 or in the footage are citizens, and so am 634 00:29:48,899 --> 00:29:51,899 I. So what do we have to do about it? 635 00:29:56,369 --> 00:29:58,799 Here are some of the questions she asks. 636 00:29:59,099 --> 00:30:01,919 that she's suggesting that we might ask 637 00:30:01,919 --> 00:30:03,869 ourselves when we're asking how we might 638 00:30:03,869 --> 00:30:05,609 watch footage or how we might watch 639 00:30:05,609 --> 00:30:07,049 photographs, and she says we shouldn't 640 00:30:07,049 --> 00:30:08,999 look at them, we should we should watch 641 00:30:08,999 --> 00:30:11,339 them, we should pay attention to them. And 642 00:30:11,339 --> 00:30:13,109 we should ask ourselves who's looking out 643 00:30:13,109 --> 00:30:14,879 of the photograph? And why are they 644 00:30:14,879 --> 00:30:16,799 looking at me? And were they really 645 00:30:16,799 --> 00:30:19,529 seeking to look at me or someone else? And 646 00:30:19,529 --> 00:30:21,419 why? Right? In other words, who is the 647 00:30:21,419 --> 00:30:24,119 image for? What does it mean for me to be 648 00:30:24,119 --> 00:30:27,869 looking at it? Number two, what are they 649 00:30:27,869 --> 00:30:30,209 demanding? How can I read their consent to 650 00:30:30,209 --> 00:30:33,269 be photographed? What happens if consent 651 00:30:33,269 --> 00:30:36,449 was impossible? This may come from a 652 00:30:36,449 --> 00:30:38,549 bystander witness, this may come from the 653 00:30:38,549 --> 00:30:40,799 person themselves. What does it mean for 654 00:30:40,799 --> 00:30:42,869 this footage to exist? It's an 655 00:30:42,869 --> 00:30:44,999 important question we have to ask, what 656 00:30:44,999 --> 00:30:47,069 are the costs of this footage existing? 657 00:30:49,739 --> 00:30:51,959 What can I reconstruct about the event 658 00:30:51,959 --> 00:30:53,849 depicted in the photograph? In other 659 00:30:53,849 --> 00:30:55,799 words, how can I watch it rather than look 660 00:30:55,799 --> 00:30:58,799 at it? Do I get the full picture? Do I 661 00:30:58,799 --> 00:31:01,349 understand the context in which the events 662 00:31:01,349 --> 00:31:03,509 that unfold in the footage are possible? 663 00:31:03,629 --> 00:31:08,729 And what happens to my position, to my 664 00:31:08,729 --> 00:31:11,759 citizenship, when confronted with their 665 00:31:11,759 --> 00:31:14,969 catastrophe, their increased vulnerability 666 00:31:14,969 --> 00:31:17,489 to catastrophe? How do they become a 667 00:31:17,489 --> 00:31:20,759 citizen? In my eyes? I think this is such 668 00:31:21,299 --> 00:31:23,129 an important question. This is so key for 669 00:31:23,129 --> 00:31:25,409 me, it means both recognizing the co- 670 00:31:25,409 --> 00:31:28,349 equality of me as a viewer and the person 671 00:31:28,349 --> 00:31:31,589 figured there, it means that their 672 00:31:31,589 --> 00:31:35,999 humanity is on an equal plane to mine. And 673 00:31:35,999 --> 00:31:38,819 it means understanding how BIPOC folks are 674 00:31:38,819 --> 00:31:40,829 regularly stripped of their citizenship 675 00:31:40,829 --> 00:31:41,759 rights, even as I 676 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:43,140 look on. 677 00:31:43,950 --> 00:31:46,530 So six, how might I redistribute power 678 00:31:46,710 --> 00:31:48,660 between the person fingered in the image, 679 00:31:48,900 --> 00:31:51,300 the photographer and myself as a 680 00:31:51,300 --> 00:31:54,930 spectator? What do I do to put myself on 681 00:31:54,930 --> 00:31:57,300 the line for those whose vulnerabilities 682 00:31:57,300 --> 00:32:00,480 exposed to me here? How can I sustain 683 00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:03,270 protest and civil rights activism, making 684 00:32:03,270 --> 00:32:05,610 those movements more possible and more 685 00:32:05,610 --> 00:32:07,740 effective by the sheer numbers of bodies 686 00:32:07,740 --> 00:32:10,740 in the streets.I want to end here by 687 00:32:10,740 --> 00:32:13,140 saying this is fundamentally the challenge 688 00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:15,510 of images of violence against BIPOC 689 00:32:15,510 --> 00:32:19,200 people. We need to acknowledge that their 690 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:23,460 circulation is traumatic, and potentially 691 00:32:23,460 --> 00:32:27,690 potent, if and only if those images are 692 00:32:27,690 --> 00:32:30,690 claimed by those whose vulnerability has 693 00:32:30,690 --> 00:32:36,210 been exposed. And I just want to end by 694 00:32:36,210 --> 00:32:38,820 really thanking Jamilah and the anti-racist 695 00:32:38,820 --> 00:32:40,950 pedagogy project for this really 696 00:32:40,950 --> 00:32:44,250 outstanding work in these modules and I'm 697 00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:46,560 really grateful and honored to contribute 698 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:47,670 to the project.