The Michael Brown shooting is all
over the news right now. Normally I would stay away from such a topical post,
as SPM’s situation has little to do with a young man being gunned down, wrongly
or not, by a police officer. However, a hashtag inspired by the post-mortem
coverage piqued my interest.
If you don’t know what the
#IfTheyGunnedMeDown hashtag is, this article has as good an explanation as any:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/11/after-michael-browns-killing-iftheygunnedmedown-shows-how-selfies-shape-history/
I don’t want to point out the
intricacies of the trend so much as the general acceptance of this; that the
media portrays what it pleases them to portray. You can chalk it up to
fear-mongering, racism, or just an attempt to catch the attention of an
already-jaded audience, but the truth is that ‘if it bleeds it leads; if it
doesn’t bleed, well, maybe we’re not looking at it from the right angle.’
How do you fight this? By
humanizing the subject. Pocos Pero Locos has posted a series of video recaps that feature SPM talking about the history and stories behind his music videos.
Please watch them, share them, talk about them with your friends.
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