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| @Ralph Basui Watkins |
“The camera loves the black subject whose struggle for
equality represent the possibilities of American democracy.”
Nicole R. Fleetwood
Troubling Vision:
Performance, Visuality, and Blackness
Can we believe what we see? The images of protest all over
our screens. From the television, to the
tablet to the cell phone, be it on Twitter, Instagram or YouTube…we are seeing
mass protest. The images project a
groundswell of revolutionary activity and a demand for justice but are the
images a message or a movement? Do the
images speak of promise or reality? Are the images lying to us? Are we being lulled to sleep by what we see
as a promise of what can be but has yet to be realized?
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| @Ralph Basui Watkins |
The quote from Nicole Fleetwood is what sparked this
blog. I am reading her book this week
and she pushes me to reflect on America’s fetish with black images of protest
as a fulfillment of the promise upon which they are calling America to
realize. The image of protest becomes
the icon upon that makes us think something is happening. We begin to worship
the image of protest while not asking the more serious question: what are the real
results of the protest as it relates to fundamental change in an oppressive
institutionalized system?
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| @Ralph Basui Watkins |
As I sat in Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta last week I
pondered what was really happening here?
Eric Holder was present along with local leaders, politicians and young
leaders of the next movement. There was
an obvious generational divide in the room and in the end the young adults and
their leader marched out. I followed them, took pictures, shoot video, posted
it and felt like something happened that night and it did but what? What is next?
What will change? Weeks after the
mass meeting African Americans are still being shoot by police, murderous
police officer are not being indicted and the images of protest continue to
fill our newsfeed. What is really going
on?
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| @Ralph Basui Watkins |
At the meeting at Ebenezer the esteemed Rev. C. T. Vivian
said, “We had a method. That is why we
won. We had a method.” We have to have a
method that engages the powers that maintain and support systems of oppression
and dismantle the systems they have nurtured and supported over the years. This is a process of dismantling a structure
of oppression. So while we post images,
have protest and shout from the roof tops let us not forget to sit, think,
strategize and make real lasting change that takes the chains off of our
people. What are you willing to sacrifice
for change? What is the promise in your
protest that makes the environment you live in freer?
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