The other day I was chatting over the fence with my neighbor. He told me that the best part of the long weekend camping trip he had taken with his family was the break from Breaking News. As I apologized for reintroducing him to current events and throwing King Cheato, willy nilly, into the discussion, I knew that he was right. The relentless onslaught of bullshit and bluster is psychological warfare; F.A.T. spewing chaos; wannabe tyrant fuming. I understood why he relished leaving it all behind and turning away. The reign of 45 is something like a river clogged and poisoned by waste and excrement, once you’ve seen it – smelled it – you don’t really have to sit down and watch it all day long. You know it by heart.
When the discussion rolled around to strategies for maintaining some semblance of sanity and not falling into the rabbit hole of despair, I pointed to my recent video work. Through it I try to balance the resoundingly negative authoritarian approach of our Central Government and underscore the richly earned waves of dissent and anger that have risen to resist by aiming my camera at the people/organizations working in the local community for positive causes. Yes, that includes protesters and activists that block traffic and generally disrupt the status quo business as usual because they want justice for those gunned down by serially violent police officers in the Twin Cities and everywhere else. It means showing up for those advocating for Full Legalization of Cannabis in Minnesota because bringing a healing plant in our of the cold will be a net benefit for MN and the cities in the state. It means highlighting political candidates and urging everyone to get out to vote at every chance you get. It means reminding people that voting is the very least action you can take to engage with your fellow human beings to leverage your combined power to influence legislation, society, and culture toward the ideals in which you believe.That’s the basic idea, anyway.
I think that I understand the ways that my approach is redolent with all my privileges. How could it be otherwise? The gadfly in that ointment is active awareness of who I am and that I am as unfinished as any other truthful human being. I stand outside of the action with a camera in between. I disjoint my work in time and distance myself from live streams. I put virtual screens between my work and the public. I step back from organizing and leading the charge. All of those options are tied up for me with a bow because of the biases expressed at every level of our society and culture. Turning away, diverting your eyes, swallowing your words, hardening your heart, those are the easiest thing because they are literally doing nothing. With a little practice, the average White person can learn to spot the warning signs that an important social justice issue is imminent and get out early. Refocus on gardening, cats, or their dog. Steer clear of the iceberg, even if it means they have long lost their way and are adrift. For Whites, supremacy is the path of least resistance. It is so insidious that we can resist to the point of tear-gas, flash-bangs, and being killed in the street, yet never acknowledge the most fundamental and common of injustices. Anti-globalist color blindness. I saw no color because I saw the world as from an airplane or a pedestal. Back on the ground I began to understand that much of what I had seen from up there was only partly true and the rest was a marketing campaign intended to lull me into a lucid dream where money bought happiness and bliss required ignorance.
The distant, outsider, perspective of my videos and engagement with the greater communities of the TC Metro perfectly captures where I am in relation to the people, movements, and organizations featured in my videos. I am a voyeur, peeping at your pain through a screen. I steal your anger and capture your wisdom, then tuck it away on hard drives. Later, I watch it alone and edit it until it is a seamless stream of knowledge that I can ingest. If I were flippant, I might call it Injustice Porn or Schadenfreude Film, but I have shed a few of the scales around my heart, so I’ll just make it a joke or an aside. You know how we are. Always dodging. It ain’t no dodge when I say that my purpose is to shake the pillars of power. I’ve lived long enough to know that no one makes social change on their own. It takes all kinds to make a world. I’ve paid attention long enough to know that the so-called, progressive, left, elements within the US society and electorate lack solidarity. I don’t want to get bogged down in defining all the sects or drawing all the lines of division. From my voyeur’s perch and looking down, I see all the separated communities moving together toward something more like the safe, just, and pleasurable world I envision for all of us. Instead of joining up with 1 or 2 particular groups, I choose to highlight a larger number of them by using my video-making skills in an effort to amplify their voices and popularize their causes.
Here is a short list in no particular order.
Chauntyll Allen. Nekima Levy-Armstrong. John Thompson. Adriana Cerrillo. Jonathan Banks. Tyrone Williams. James Badue El. Leslie Badue. Marcus Harcus. King Demetrius Pendelton. Mel Reeves. Cathy Jones. Raeisha Williams. Samantha Lee Pree-Stinson. Cynthia Wilson. Russ Henry. Devin Hogan. Londel French.
None of my content is monetized by a mechanism that financially benefits my bottom line. Watch, share, and embed as you will.