Abandoned Protest Idea

Institutional Racism / police brutality?

I missed the initial group gathering and we hadn't decided on a topic/protest focus until the following week where we decided that we would pursue another idea but i thought that i should leave some notes I made on a topic I felt inspired to research and talk about.

Kendrick Lamar - Alright

Black and white imagery

2:34 - Older white policemen carrying a car of young black men on their shoulders (flipping modern social power hierarchy) connotations could also be drawn with slavery

At the end Kendrick is shot off of the top of a lamppost overlooking the city (light imagery) he hits the ground and then smiles at the camera before it cuts to black which i think represents the silver lining in these police shootings that there is still hop that change will come.

Buffalo - Tyler the Creator

Tickle tickle slap idea with the angry mob an the hanging against the somewhat comical lyrics

Also strong black and white imagery

Use of colour - the contrasts

Sinister tones (lynching) also with the flipping of conventional race ideology (Jim Crow Laws)

This could be looking at the idea of reverse racism

The fact that the white guy isn't white at all and is only painted white could be a statement saying that we are all the same as human beings and that race division is merely social construct

It could be drawing attention to the overgrowing issue of black on black crime

At one point he wipes on black point and then the mob figures are suddenly listening to him. He is standing at a public speaker podium which makes it reasonable to assume that this is a satirical poke at politics and maybe even the marketing of Obama as "the first black president" despite him being just as black as he is white. As much as it is a poke at politics it is also then a poke at the supposedly gullible audience.

My idea
My visual idea was to stage a lynching outside underneath the tree. This imigary immediately draws parallels with Jim Crow laws and the civil rights movement but the noose would be on both both sides of the branch. On one side there would be a young black man in a hoodie and on the other side would be a white policeman or woman. The crowds/mobs would also be reflective of the race. on one side the condemnation of young black males and on the other the condemnation of all white policemen.