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...]

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?