Martin-6-I
I'm trying to get an internship with the NAACP in order to finish off my Masters in Public Administration. This chapter kind of made me think about that.
Remember when the movie Crash came out? Everybody was going crazy about it. People were like, "Oh My God! There's still racism in this country! I never!"
Well, duh! Of course there's still racism! I couldn't believe how surprised people were. Did it really take a melodramatic movie to get people to look outside themselves for a second and recognize the obvious?
I guess the reason Crash was so successful was that it told a story. People can just ignore the protesters and minority leaders as being a bunch of whiners who don't know how to work hard and follow that American dream. All the Jesse Jackson sound bites in the world don't mean a thing. But when people watch a movie with sympathetic characters who are affected by racism, all of a sudden it becomes real for them.
The recent Jena 6 protests were great and all, but if you watched the news, there weren't many white people out in those crowds. If somebody was to frame the situation in an effective story, then maybe that would change. Otherwise, they're just hearing Nancy Grace yell at them about it.
Labels: Martin
posted by Martin Ryder @ 2:34 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Hey, at least some of my friends on facebook were promoting Jena 6. In a way that's a story...your facebook account. Go Martin!
The thing that I liked about crash was there was racism in every culture in the movie represented. It was like nobody has a right to point a finger at anybody.
Crash was interesting to me because of how the story was told, through connections. Simmons suggests that it is emotional connections that will help storytellers use their influence.
I think the Jena 6 situation was far enough away from most people that they didn't have an emotional connection. It also seemed to be a lot of "my word against your word," and without a full understanding we are left disconnected.
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