- Convenors:
-
Raminder Kaur
(University of Sussex)
Mariagiulia Grassilli (University of Sussex)
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- Start time:
- 28 March, 2021 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
We explore representations and performances against racism as 'catalytic signifiers' that contribute to empowering narratives and uprisings, whilst investigating the ripple effects that re-thinking and reclaiming icons - films, statues, monuments, sounds etc. - have for social change and equality. Session 3: Collaborations
Long Abstract:
Viral videos, murals, graffiti, performance activism, tumbling statues, and Black Atlantic film screenings are all part of empowering audio-visual-digital narratives that contribute to the rising momentum against ongoing institutional racism on the backs of the legacies of colonialism, slavery and exploitation across the world. Our panel sets out to explore such representations and performances as 'catalytic signifiers' in moments of rupture that have contributed to explosive uprisings, whilst also investigating the ripple effects that re-thinking and reclaiming icons such as films, statues, museums, monuments, streets, sites names and sounds are having for social change and equality in contemporary and historical eras.
By denouncing police brutality, capturing and sharing films of racist violent attacks, and/or digitally amplifying anti-racism protests across the world, audio-visual-digital conduits have connected local and global struggles for rights and recognition - from the Rhodes Must Fall movement that started in South Africa, Black Lives Matter in US and UK to migrants 'braccianti' rights in Italy, indigenous communities, Palestinians in Israeli occupied territories among other ethno-racial minorities. Meanwhile catalytic imagery such as victims of state-corporate brutality from the townships of Johannesburg to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the plains of South Dakota have ignited such protests. This is amid growing awareness of the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black, migrant, minority, and indigenous communities - further linking social exclusion and health inequalities to ethnic/racial discrimination. We welcome contributions on any of these and related themes that examine the catalytic use of audio-visual-digital imagery in historical and contemporary movements for ethnic/racial equality.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
This paper will discuss how indigenous people are utilizing the Black Lives Matter movement to bring attention to social injustice issues that are often similar to those of African-Americans such as police brutality.
Paper long abstract:
How has Black Lives Matter redefined and expanded the definition of blackness? The Black Lives Matter movement has become globalized with protests occurring in multiple nations. However, indigenous people have formed a sort of solidarity with the movement while at the same time highlighting mistreatment of their own people at the hands of police and other government agencies. This paper will explore commonalities of the Black Lives Matter movement in indigenous communities with their African-American counterparts. This paper will explore commonalities of the Black Lives Matter movement in indigenous communities with their African-American counterparts. The globalization of the Black Lives Matter movement beyond the United States borders can be examined through the lens of critical race theory and constructivist theory.
This is not the first time the plight, protest, and activism of African-Americans served as a catalyst and template for other disenfranchised people. The 1960s African-American Civil Rights Movement widely spread to others with differing levels of success. However, the focus on this presentation is on indigenous groups support of African-Americans through exchanging dialogue via social media and adoption of Black Lives Matter symbolic language. Will indigenous groups be able to sustain solidarity with others while also advocating for the eradication of social injustices such cultural genocide within their own societies? Perhaps, finally oppression of any group can no longer be justified or ignored.
Paper short abstract:
This paper considers the content, context and viral impact of shared videos and photographs of police brutality against African migrants in Italy in 2018, which had a major impact on the case against the police, in fact investigations were opened against policemen for abuse of power during an arrest
Paper long abstract:
The paper focuses on the arrest of an African “bracciante” from Gambia who lives in a shantytown outside Foggia in Puglia (Southern Italy) and makes his living picking tomatoes for less than 25 euros a day. Jallow was arrested in October 2018 for allegedly assaulting two policemen and attempting to resist arrest. The picture was taken by Jallow’s fellow migrant shantytown residents who were shocked by the way in which the Italian policemen were treating him and decided to video record his arrest to the chants of: “He is not an animal!”. The videos were uploaded on the web and went viral. “Campagne in Lotta,” a local activist group, committed to challenging the mainstream narrative that African migrant shantytown residents are “criminals” uploaded them on their platform increasing visibility. In the end, the police were forced to retract all accusations. Jallow was not only acquitted of all charges, but the policemen involved were investigated for abuse of power. By denouncing the racist, violent and dehumanizing police arrest tactics through the shared videos, the migrants’ struggle went from being a local issue to gaining increased visibility. The case however did not attract the attention it deserved because migrants suffer a double discrimination based on legal status and race and their lives are deemed less important than citizen’s lives. Ultimately, the ability and willingness to document and report police brutality is essential in combating institutional racism and discrimination across the globe and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement internationally.
Paper short abstract:
Addressing indigenous and mestizo artistic and political performances, this paper interrogates imaginaries of 'whiteness' attached to monumental sites and visual icons within the urban space, elaborating on gestures of rupturing dominant and colonial narratives, representations, and aesthetics.
Paper long abstract:
In Santiago, indigenous presence is usually relegated to certain places: the outskirts of the metropolitan area, the museum, certain cultural events, the artisan's market. In the city centre, monuments and landmarks are mostly dedicated to celebrate the colonial past, and visual icons and symbols 'forget' indigeneity or at best depict it as something related to the past. Recently, these representations have been defied by both urban art and political protest. Through artistic and political performances, indigenous and mestizo artists and activists have staged subversive representations, challenging racialisation processes embedded in the urban space. Addressing the spaces and materialities of the capital city, imaginations of 'whiteness' and 'europeannness' are being questioned through claims for mixture and 'morenidad' under the (white) skin of the Chilean nation. Building on two years of collaborative work with Mapuche artist and activists in Santiago, this paper interrogates these representations and the challenges they pose for rethinking visual icons in a moment of social change in Chile and beyond. Drawing on three performances realised in a monumental site in downtown Santiago in different moments - during the research process in 2018; as a staged theatre piece in 2019; and during the Chilean uprising later that same year - and their audio-visual documentation, the paper examines the use of performance and art in contexts of inequality and racial discrimination, elaborating on the political aesthetics enacted by gestures of rupturing dominant and colonial narratives and representations.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I address the complexities of Jean Rouch's film, Moi, un Noir (1958), and attempt to assess the way in which Rouch may be considered as a mediator, fighting against colonial representation, or as a cog in the colonial machine.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores Moi, un Noir (1958) in relation to early moves towards participatory filmmaking in anthropology, and in turn, attempts to address the ways in which Rouch’s pioneering filmic techniques may aid or hinder our cultural understandings and attempts for racial/ethnic equality. Drawing on the works of Trinh T. Minh-ha and Ousmane Sembène, I assess Rouch’s positioning in the filming process, and note the ways in which this may represent either a more contemporary approach, one which magnifies the voices of those under colonialist or racist rule, or whether his work reaffirms such colonial power dynamics through his positioning and entanglement within the twilight years of the French Empire, and as director of the films. As such, I open this analysis up to wider concerns, of how anthropology in the current era can more aptly move away from damaging power dynamics and productions of knowledge through film.
Paper short abstract:
This paper investigates the extent to which diversity narratives enable the persistence of White supremacy in US and European institutions. It uses collaborative filmmaking both as a mode of investigation and a means of political possibility.
Paper long abstract:
This paper investigates the extent to which diversity narratives enable the persistence of White supremacy in US and European institutions. It uses collaborative filmmaking both as a mode of investigation and a means for imagining political possibility.
Background
This paper is based on a project I began at the University of Michigan (USA) in the winter of 2021 in which I asked students to make short (10 minute) films about the future of the University and their surrounding communities from the perspective of "diversity." What did "diversity" mean in practice? How should it be interrogated, and how was it affecting their experience of the university and/or their lives prior to entering it?
In whose interest was "diversity" being advocated? What might Black, Indigenous, and Students of Color gain from the term and institutional implementation of "diversity"? What might they lose? To what extent is "diversity" able to address issues of systemic racism or feelings of isolation?
What can collective filmmaking do to address these questions?