Part One: The sensation of black suffering - 1/7/2020

This is the first part of a three part series. I have some thoughts about the recent proliferation of information that BLM has spurred. The capacity for activism on social media that this movement has shown is refreshing; but with it comes mis-information and new worries that need addressing if we want to have a productive conversation about structural racism in a digital space.

1. The incessant posting and sharing of black people getting murdered cannot be detached from our fascination with absolute brutality. 

There is something very powerful about the experience of spectatorship in its evocation of deep emotion. Capturing and then sharing a real event on film is a visceral way of making people actually care about wrongdoing, a moment that oftentimes forces empathy without intention to. This is a long-tradition, and its in its recent usage under the hashtag 'Black Lives Matter', information in a visual form has established itself as a critical agent to mobilise global activism. Before I go into why this can be dangerous, the benefits of this are bountiful. Mass sharing concerns the rapid distribution of information that has reach to even the most remote countries; it establishes collectivism and unity because we are all seeing the same thing at once;  and although we may have differing opinions on what it means, mass sharing has brought people together, created international movements and drawn attention to gross injustice that would otherwise would be unbeknownst to the rest of the world. 

Saying this, it comes with its issues. When being spectators to something as morbid as murder, especially on a macro scale; it distorts the relationship between voyeur and object, and comes with a tinge of sensationalism that can be quite uncomfortable to experience on social media.

 

This is one of the more mainstream discussions currently being held, especially due to this current stage of the Black Lives Matter movement. In the short lapse of time that was the outrage at Ahmaud Arbery’s death, and right before George Floyd’s murder became international news, this conversation started to emerge, where people were became increasingly aware that viewing a dying person’s last moments cannot be detached from shock value and phenomena. Although this does not undermine its meaning, there is a feeling that it dilutes its significance. If you have viewed so many people getting killed that you can now scroll past a video of gross injustice almost as second nature, something is going wrong.

 

The volume of black suffering that freely circulates the internet is alarming, and I personally don’t need to see it every day to understand the urgency of the movement or that these events are the effects of the ideology that black lives are more disposable than white ones. 

 

In 2017, Philando Castile’s girlfriend livestreamed her boyfriend bleeding to death in the driver’s seat of their car. Clearly shell shocked, she says the words “please don’t tell me my boyfriend just went like that”  into her front camera. The chaotic nature of this video is then amplified by the fact that she is simultaneously interacting with aggressive police officers who are yelling at her to get out of the car. This in itself is deeply disturbing. It is the embodiment of grief, despair, distress, and anger rolled into one video; then repackaged into one tweet that is then viewed by millions of people. People often forget the straightforward idea that every retweet and ‘share to story’ 

 

is literally the proliferation of trauma. 

 

Whether it is in physical, neutral form, such as the blackened, hollowed out skeleton of Grenfell Tower or the rollercoaster of Castile’s girlfriend filming her partner take his last breaths, it is now an exhibition, and this makes all the difference. In the same way that we shudder at the photographs of lynchings and the fact that hundreds of townspeople turned up just to see a black body hang from trees, although there is a sense of detachment through virtual screens; there is the same marvelling at a display of grotesquery, that is deeply objectifying. It is that millions of people are now (often-times unintentional) eyewitnesses to not just one horrific incident, but hundreds, is a phenomena; and is a direct effect of the mass sharing of traumatic events.

The police state was created with an intention to suppress and coerce, but black people saying this ourselves is not enough reason for it to be a prioritised issue, it must be seen over and over again on our phone screens before a sense of moral obligation to enact change kicks in. It is disconcerting to even entertain the notion that people need to see these videos to remind them that black people are constantly dying from these types of injustice, and the number of videos that actually make it to social media is minuscule to the scale. Racism is not sensational, it is within the fabric of our society, and it happens everyday. To distribute black death is to distribute deep anguish; and unfortunately, because these feelings are in itself so uncomfortable, they are often met with avoidance as it too painful to feel the full weight of them. With this in mind, if we constantly view them, we edge closer and closer to experiencing desensitisation. 

Visual images do lose potency, and although many of these videos are shared to call attention to the struggles of black people, I have a strong feeling that sometimes they are shared for the wrong reasons of sensationalism. These overt cases of injustice do not draw attention to the insidious nature of discrimination that goes beyond murder; and worms its way into coded language, behaviours, and practices that culminate into oppression. Police brutality is one area, but the movement is far more encompassing. If we are willing to have a real fight against structural racism (and I definitely am) we need to delve deeper from the initial feelings of shock value, sensational reports, and dramatised versions and see it for what it really is. Real pain.  

To consistently share black injustice is very important to make sure it does not pass as a trend. However, the proliferation of black suffering that is readily available at all times can be distressing (especially when shared by those outside of it). It is the balancing act of sincere intentions to call people to justice and also that pure shock value fuels interaction and exposure. The most abject cases of racism will always be at the forefront, and thats fine, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The cycle of sensationalism that exists in our digital space has never been properly monitored; and when it concerns black people, it is to detrimental ends.