I created a video as a counter-narrative on black male students for our High School's Black History Month Celebration in 2014. The joint video featured twenty juniors and seniors from the two neighboring high schools there as a way to counter the negative images of young African-American males in the media. The students affirmed the following in a video highlighting their successes of young black males instead. We were quoted as saying “The negative stories told daily in the media and in our culture about our young African-American men tend to ignore their successes and don't tell the full story about how young Black men are becoming leaders within our community schools. In this video, our students reclaim the narrative of who they are and inspire other students to follow in their footsteps."
Our video was not to change the world or the masses. Our goal was to impart a positive message to our community and we reached our goal. We put the video on YouTube so that the young men could share it with their families. We were excited about our accomplishment. We never knew social media would hijack the video! Social media has drastically changed how we communicate. We received over a quarter million views and numerous blog posts, radio shows, and news articles about the video. Most were positive. But many were not. Some said we are teaching respectability politics. Others said hurtful and racist comments. Very quickly, we realized we had to do even more education with the boys. They have learned how to appropriately and thoughtfully frame their responses to negativity on social media. They learned (if they didn’t already know) that everyone is not their friend, does not view the world through the same lens that they do, and they learned how to critically examine responses for validity, additional learning points, as well as stupidity.
We did not expect it to blow up in the manner in which it did. We did this for our school community and for the boys in the video and their classmates. We did it for the news outlet in our community to consider the messages that they print. The Champaign-Urbana community is a diverse one. It is a college town with a very high wealth as well as extremely poor neighborhoods. Kids go to the public schools there and interact with a mixture of gender, race, religion, economic status, sexuality identity every day. This video was to highlight the boys doing well, quell the negativity that they were getting lumped into and possibly inspire their classmates on a different path to do something better. IT for sure impacted the boys in the video which was the ultimate goal. It has given them an introduction to discuss racism, violence on Black males, stereotypes that they encounter and the like. It was meant for them. They used it on their college applications and to apply for scholarships.
While Champaign-Urbana has been struck with a series of shootings and murders of Black males in the last year, these young men are attempting to do better and influence others.
Our goal was to influence our community. Our community. The one where we lived, worked, worshipped, relaxed, and cared for. We loved this community and we wanted the best for the community and the people in it. We did this project and countless others for the community we knew, loved, and cherished. Mass media hijacked our work to a broader community and social media in ways we didn’t expect—most was good but some as not. The takeaway for us was to have a goal, know your audience, achieve your goal, and not to worry about the masses. What can you do for your own community?
At Gholson Consulting Group, LLC our focus is on you, your well-being, and the well-being of the community you live in. We strive to offer support and resources to help you. You can count on us.