Dances with Xenophobes & Eating the Racist Banana: Laughter Trumps Hate in Civic Action on Viral Video

What do you do when you feel disrespected by the views of a protesting crowd making a spectacle of their intolerance? In the face of insults from southern California protestors demanding tougher illegal immigration enforcement, the guy in the first video discussed below decided to burst into a joyful dance and wave a Mexican flag to elicit enthusiastic responses from passersby. This video makes a great discussion piece about the power of joy and laughter to subvert angry media messages.


People in the U.S. exercise their rights to free speech and public assembly, which includes protests expressing intolerant, racist and xenophobic views. When we encounter such expressions that oppose the basic notions of tolerance and respect upon which we design education for participation in pluralistic democracy, what can we do? We can talk back, fighting fire with fire, showing the same passion and outrage in expressing our own beliefs. But is anger as good as laughter for combatting hate?

The video above had been uploaded by an angry protestor to make fun of the joyful dancer, but was picked up by news agencies and blogs that celebrated the dancer's action, making this a rich topic for exploring the potential for using humor to counter intolerant views in civic action and viral video--and it offers great connections for considering core media literacy concepts of author's purposes versus the different ways people may understand, and repurpose, messages. The notion of humor trumping hate in public performances caught on video reminded me of a favorite moment for comparison where, last year, angry soccer fans directed racist chants at Barcelona FC star Dani Alves, and then this happened:

Meu pai sempre me falava: filho come banana que evita cãibra rsrs, como adivinharam isso? hahaha 🙊🍌🍌🙊 #somosmaisqueisso#ficaadica

A video posted by DanialvesD2 My Twitter (@danid2ois) on Apr 27, 2014 at 3:26pm PDT

As shown in this second video, when someone throws a banana at Alves while he prepared to take a corner kick, instead of responding with anger or leaving the field as other stars have done, Alves picked up the fruit, peeled it and ate it, then kicked the ball to resume play. Here, instead of a user-generated video involving everyday folks picked up by mass media, we see competing messages of hate and humor from sports fans and a celebrity athlete broadcast in mass media, then excerpted for viral sharing by bloggers and digital media users. Last spring when this happened, Alves posted the video on Instagram, and he and his teammates and celebrity friends began to circulate their own viral tweets and Instagram posts with pictures of themselves and their families eating bananas with the hashtag #weareallmokeys and #SayNoToRacism. What a way to take the sting out of that insult!

[More after the jump with suggestions for leading analytic discussion and follow up production activities for young adults in any learning setting interested in understanding how to construct effective counter-messages in digital media and how to engage in civic action...]

Wilmore asks, "Doth we protest too much?": Media Literacy and the State of the Black Protest OR "Trying not to get shot on our way to work"

With the Department of Justice report on the Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department released this week, media literacy educators everywhere should be supporting learners in analyzing how news producers and audiences are responding and representing the findings in relation to media representation of race and social justice. Beyond analysis, it is vitally important for students to see how their work and participation matters.

On the Harry Potter Alliance's successful protest of Warner Bros. to ensure all chocolate with Harry Potter's likeness was fair trade, Wilmore quipped:
"After Ferguson and Garner, it bugs me a little bit that in 2014 this is the only chocolate that got justice... But my point is, they succeeded. Okay, so they can work. There is hope."

Without a connection to civic engagement, media literacy analysis can lead students to feel cynical about their own power to make change. But often, learners are already cynical about politics and have little awareness of how their own participation, online and off, can and does have an impact. In this post, we'll look closely at some comedy about anti-racism protests to start discussion of our own feelings about civic engagement. On his debut show on MLK day, Nightly host Larry Wilmore posed questions about the "State of the Black protest." Just as Wilmore used his jokes about protests to set up the topic for his panel, the segment offers media literacy educators a compelling way to engage learners in media analysis of Wilmore's comedy to launch subsequent discussion of how students feel about protests, which are media events themselves, and about other forms of engagement for emerging digital citizens.

Wilmore's humor considers both cynicism and hope for effective civic action while provocatively connecting to issues of social justice and race representation in media. Through analyzing the following segment (posted with suggestions after the jump), your group will be primed to discuss a range of questions linking their media literacy with civic engagement: What issues are worth public protest? What can/do/should protests achieve (expression of outrage, articulation of demands, public awareness, tangible change, an outlet to diffuse violent uprising)? What methods should protests take (including in the digital sphere)? What level of disruption of daily life do protests merit? How/when should news media cover public protests (and when should you spread the word or participate)? Can protests today address race issues effectively? What other sorts of civic action can make change in response to public issues, particularly issues involving Black men and law enforcement? How does your digital participation matter when you represent yourself and your views, and when you pay attention, comment, share or otherwise engage with these issues? Suggestions and examples for connecting media analysis of the clip to these larger questions about civic action, social justice, race and media representation--all appear after the jump below the embedded clip.

Soundtracking Senator McConnell: Mobilizing Remix in Politics

Last night, Jon Stewart invited Daily Show viewers to join in the fun of setting a two and a half minute wordless campaign ad from Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to music. As a moderate liberal democrat incensed by McConnells socially conservative republican leadership, Stewart regularly mocks McConnell on the show, often simply for his diction and appearance, which Stewart apes in the character of Cecil the Turtle from Looney Tunes.

Click the pic to see Stewart's call for remixing McConnell's campaign ad.

Aside from the obvious juvenile derision of a political adversary, Stewart's bit poses as pure Internet silliness--fun with remix culture. He shows the same few seconds of the ad with several different songs, showing how the music can change the message in myriad humorous ways. This suggests a fun and fruitful media literacy exercise lesson for any age group (hint: you don't have to use McConnell!). I'll offer some specific ideas and reflections on my experience doing similar remix activities with students (and Girl Scouts!) to develop media literacy after the jump. However, partisan political attacks aside, this Daily Show clip is more than just a call to mockery; buried in the lead is an important lesson on remix and convergence culture in politics. Stewart points out that McConnell most likely posted this 2m30s wordless ad in order to facilitate Super Pacs (political action committees) using and remixing the images in their own ads to support his campaign. Super PACs can collect and spend unlimited funds on political ads without disclosing sources of the money (as candidates must for donations over a certain amount), provided there is no collusion or communication between the politician and the Super PAC [Colbert did an absolutely hilarious series of segments exploiting and exposing how Super PACs work--a brilliant teaching resource on the topic]. Ask: How does McConnell's alleged strategy work? How does he intend to benefit? How do voters lose out in the process? So, McConnell offers these images to the public, affording him some direct control over his public image portrayed in remixed ads by the Super PACs supporting him without directly communicating with them.
[After the jump: More on this, w/ the Daily Show clip and ideas for soundtracking lessons for media literacy]

Sikh Captain America Patrols NYC

A slight, brown-skinned man with a long beard and turban dons the costume of Captain America, takes up the star spangled shield, and hits the streets of New York City to confront racism and intolerance.

"Chill!--it's just a turban...Now let's kick some intolerant ass!"

This performance art from cartoonist/software-analyst Vishavjit Singh and photographer Fiona Aboud challenges expectations of who can represent America, patriotism, and American heroes. Their work makes a fantastic centerpiece for discussing race/ethnicity and media representation as well as how media construct heroes to represent our values--great for middle schoolers through college students. Singh posted a fine reflection at SikhNet on coming up with the idea and on his experiences as Captain America in NYC. His reflections in this Salon.com piece offer 10 poignant life lessons he gleaned from his performance. Luckily, Hari Kondabolu, comedic correspondent for W. Kamau Bell's promising FX show Totally Biased (sadly canceled in November after 2 months), documented a hilarious segment of bystanders reactions to and interactions with Singh as Captain America on the streets of New York. So, after you activate some prior knowledge about Marvel's Captain America with discussion and notes about what comes to mind when students think of the character and/or images of American heroes in general, watch this clip and take a nice long session for doing a complete media literacy analysis with all the key questions [click here for NAMLE handout of ML KQ's]. It's worth watching it again, and pausing often for interpretation and discussion questions. The guy who changes his mind about Singh's performance from "racist" to "hilarious" and "great" within the conversation is particularly striking. Singh's reflection pieces in particular make him a great model for media literacy activism for social justice. Check out the clip:

How and why is this funny? What techniques are effective in delivering Singh's message to people on the street, and to the audience for the video? The final bit in the segment with the diverse race, gender, and sexualities for the Avengers characters (to join Sikh Cap) suggests a great exercise in rewriting or remaking a comic book page--handrawn, photoshopped, or using ComicLife. Be sure to engage students in reflective discussion on their intended messages and choices for representation. You could also make a connection to the trend toward diversity in superhero comics, as discussed here by Oscar winning screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave, and evidenced in the new Ms. Marvel reboot, which I will discuss in a subsequent post. I'd love to hear what you and yours make of Singh's Captain America. Who would you pose as his sidekick Bucky?