Frames of images clipped together from a dashboard camera in a car on a lonely suburban street in America captures the silent brutality lurking behind a seemingly harmless neighborhood in Alabama. In a matter of 10 minutes, Alabama police go from being respected individuals to those who beat mercilessly on the defenseless. This video, with over 500,000 views displays our society's need to grasp onto the cruel injustices that are out of the ordinary in everyday life. It was as if this dashboard camera was destined to film this video of the Alabama police beating an innocent Indian grandfather for not being able to communicate in English just so that the masses could find a new object of their attention. The person who's car the camera belonged to doesn't matter, he's just another face in the crowd. As author Don DeLillo highlights a similar story, he points out that the realities of human life, represented in the person who films the tragedy, hides behind a blank name or a name which society presents for him or her, namely "The Video Kid", or "that person" (DeLillo). No one stops to consider the trauma of that individual, or even of the individuals being abused, because the public searches for the scenario simply "to provide for entertainment" , not to sympathize with the inflicted (DeLillo).
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Breaking News: A Moving Picture Captures the Horrors of American life
Frames of images clipped together from a dashboard camera in a car on a lonely suburban street in America captures the silent brutality lurking behind a seemingly harmless neighborhood in Alabama. In a matter of 10 minutes, Alabama police go from being respected individuals to those who beat mercilessly on the defenseless. This video, with over 500,000 views displays our society's need to grasp onto the cruel injustices that are out of the ordinary in everyday life. It was as if this dashboard camera was destined to film this video of the Alabama police beating an innocent Indian grandfather for not being able to communicate in English just so that the masses could find a new object of their attention. The person who's car the camera belonged to doesn't matter, he's just another face in the crowd. As author Don DeLillo highlights a similar story, he points out that the realities of human life, represented in the person who films the tragedy, hides behind a blank name or a name which society presents for him or her, namely "The Video Kid", or "that person" (DeLillo). No one stops to consider the trauma of that individual, or even of the individuals being abused, because the public searches for the scenario simply "to provide for entertainment" , not to sympathize with the inflicted (DeLillo).
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ReplyDeleteGreat job, Ananya! I really liked how you used another story to parallel Delillo's. It further supports your claim as well as DeLillo's on the horrors captured on film.
ReplyDeleteYour post was a perfect example of the piece we discussed in class on Friday! It's shocking how people can resort to violence to solve their problems--the irony of the matter is that it only makes things worse.
ReplyDeleteAnd the scarier thing is--when the police are the ones committing the injustice, who do you turn to?
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