Why do we need videos of black people dying?
Unlike the videos of beheadings circulated by ISIS, unlike the video uploaded by the killer who left dozens dead at two mosques last year in Christchurch, New Zealand, videos of black people dying at the hands of the American police are not propaganda. |
Instead, they’re valuable evidence — evidence of a pattern of cruelty suffered by black Americans and denied or ignored by others for generations. In specific cases these videos can also be criminal evidence. |
But you still don’t have to watch them, or share them. Media organizations don’t need to show them over and over. Detailed descriptions in news accounts are more than enough to bring the horror home. |
“Statements of personal outrage attached to a retweet do not outweigh the harm of the constant barrage of these images,” writes the author and political scientist Melanye Price today. The way the videos are shown on a loop can amount to another assault on the humanity of the victims — “sons, daughters, mothers and uncles” who are “each more than their deaths.” |
You may have good reasons of your own to watch videos like these, and I don’t mean to suggest otherwise; you may simply feel that you can’t look away, that you need to bear witness. But I urge you to read Price’s piece and consider her message: “Anyone who needs one more video to believe the injustices around us, either refuses to learn or is content with the violence.” |
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