In Trevor Noah’s Clip, “George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper”, he talks about how every person signs a contract with society. This contract makes sure that society maintains its laws and stays in order. He explains how as a result of the pandemic, many people were struggling and becoming homeless. Even so, they never looted because they wanted to maintain their part of society’s contract. He uses this contract as a basis for explaining why African Americans are looting and why we shouldn’t be so critical of them for breaking their part of the contract when those higher in power have already broken their contract. African Americans are constantly having their bodies looted every day and we are only now seeing it because of the domino effect that has occurred.
Trevor Noah explains how Amy Cooper was the first domino to fall. When she threatened to call 911 on an African American even though he did nothing wrong, she drew attention to the power she felt as a white woman and the lack of power the African American had because of implicit bias. Then, after George Floyd happened, more people started to focus on the mistreatment of African Americans, either perhaps because the police looked so calm doing it, or we were seeing someone’s life being taken. Even though police brutality toward African Americans has always been present, people were only just realizing it because of the pandemic.
In the film I am not your Negro, James Baldwin wanted to discuss the lives of Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Medgar Evers because none of them lived past 40 and despite being such influential people in the civil rights movement, they couldn’t accomplish as much as they could’ve because their lives were cut short. He wanted their three lives to come together to reveal eachother and instruct people for whom they gave their lives.
Baldwin writes about several films that are showcased in the documentary and used to show how Hollywood promotes racist stereotypes for black people while painting white people as pure and innocent.
The documentary not only draws attention to scenes of police violence in the 1960’s, but also compares them to scenes from our own modern lives. It closes the gap between our past and current lives and paints brutality against African Americans as an ongoing problem. I was thrown off by the vivid imagery of black people being chased and abused by police as well as lynchings from the past. The more recent videos looked just as brutal as the lynchings and I was so shocked seeing history replay itself in many ways.
I like how you mentioned our ability to see what is happening in the world because of the domino effect. I agree it helps bring the topic into light but it makes one think how many acts of injustice happens without the world noticing. I also like how you drew attention to the point that Baldwin makes in the film about Hollywood promoting racist stereotypes and your comparison of the videos from the past to the videos of today. It shows us that we have a lot of progress to make.
I felt you had a very good explanation of what Trevor Noah was trying to say when he was speaking about the domino effect. You made an interesting point about more people realizing about police brutality because of the pandemic, and I sort of agree, because social media is being used now more than ever, and people are seeing more of what is going on around them, ironically, as they are confined to their homes.