On ASU’s campus there was recently a forum on privilege. This forum was set up because an RA had set up check yo privilege boards in the dorm and some people felt like this was an attack or an invasion of their space. The forum was excellent and one of the professors quoted the comedian Aamer Rahman’s sketch on reverse racism. I thought this was a really good way of explaining reverse racism and highlighting privilege in such a way that it was both funny and insightful. In making this project I am also reflecting on the current news about police brutality. It seems like cell phones are playing the same role that tv crews and cameras did in the Vietnam war. Seeing is believing. And seeing makes things real in a way that doesn’t allow us to ignore them. This has brought issues of race and the military-industrial-Academic(was originally in Eisenhower’s speech but was removed for simplicity)-Prison (as discussed in Imperial University) complex to the forefront of conversation.
The web 2.0 has been instrumental in this conversation. With youtube and other video hosting sites making the footage readily available to the public. Also with social media being a site for people to have conversations about these occurrences often with outrage at verdicts that protect police. #blacklivesmatter. This is not a new issue (power by Audre Lorde). But the use of social media and video is reconstructing the ways we are processing these issues. I made this video to highlight what I believe is a great tool for understanding the concept of reverse racism. This is for educational purposes because there is not a better way I’ve found to help people understand reverse racism without “calling out” students, which causes them to shut down. As we saw with the issue of the privilege boards in the dorms.
Also, this was super difficult to make!! I have a whole new appreciation for the amazing kinetic typography videos that are out there. I thought there would be a good web tool for making these and there really wasn’t. So I learned to use Adobe After Effects. I watched 4 hours of tutorials and experimented with the program until I figured out how to make a simple version. This highlights another aspect of the web 2.0, you can learn anything! There are so many great tutorials on anything you could imagine. I also learned to use Premiere Pro the same way, I just start plunking around in the program and when I get stuck I google it and find a tutorial. I use google because part of the issue is learning the language of the program. And google will take me to forums where people are contextualizing questions for the program which give me the vocabulary to re-google and find tutorials. I learned a lot doing this project and I hope it adds to the conversation.
Mediated Knowledges 