What is it about?
The aim of this photo essay, through simulated director cues, is to question viewers’ intent in the consumption of videos that make a spectacle of the violence perpetrated on Black bodies.
Featured Image
Photo by mana5280 on Unsplash
Why is it important?
What are the politics of the gaze at play in this culture of viewing Black death? With the proliferation of videos that are taken from a scene, posted, and shared, have we truly become more engaged citizens, staunch activists, and effective community organizers? Or have we sat back, copied and pasted a link, and made a statement of our dismay in the spirit of social change online while offline nothing changes at all? We proceed with our weekend plans, go to work, do household chores, and continue our random daily activities.
Perspectives
In the vein of the underlying principle of Black Lives Matter, does a Black life really matter for those of us who proclaim it? The ubiquity of social media has fostered an ever-increasing, mediated culture and mode of communication on the injustice of racialized violence.
Rasul Mowatt
North Carolina State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Black Lives as Snuff: The Silent Complicity in Viewing Black Death, Biography, January 2018, Project Muse,
DOI: 10.1353/bio.2018.0079.
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