You know, I can’t help but think about the framing of things, comparing the 100 and Underground. I’m not going to post pictures because it’s triggering as fuck, but my goodness, the differences between the framing of Adina Porter’s character, Pearly Mae, and Ricky Whittle’s character, Lincoln.
Two black characters, on their knees, looking down the barrel of a gun, sacrificing themselves for the people they love as said loved ones looking on from afar.
And yet on Underground, Pearly Mae’s hands are up and she’s begging the white man not to kill her in front of her daughter. Adina pointed out that it was deliberately positioned with hands up as a homage to Ferguson. There is nobility there, but there is such an awareness of how their show fits into the current cultural landscape. Chris Meloni’s slave catcher character pauses, and there’s conflict on his face, because his own kid is watching not just Pearly Mae’s family, and something in him stops him from pulling the trigger in front of his audience. The horror is underscored by his reluctance and we don’t need to see the violence here to get the message.
Meanwhile, over on the 100, not only are they having another black man holding the gun, feeding into the Black on Black trope despite the fact that Pike is supposed to be an allegory of post 9/11 bigotry against Muslims (which ???? but whatever) – the show deliberately sensationalizes Lincoln’s death. His hands are shackled, the gun goes off, everything is in slow motion, in graphic detail, and his body is filmed from above, splayed out, bleeding out in the mud from his head.
Did we need to see that? Why not just cut to Octavia’s horrified reaction? Why did we need to see that level of detail? Do they not realize how harmful that image is, of a helpless (PEACEFUL) black man on his knees being shot execution style by an authority figure? In the world we live in, THAT is the image they decided to go with. And multiple people signed off on that- from the director to the showrunner to the studios.
I just…
It baffles me how tone deaf this show is when it comes to how they think they can just film things this way and think it’s okay for KIDS to watch. Do they think we need this in our society?
THEIR RACISM KEEPS ON SHOWING AND THEY THINK IT’S OKAY JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE DIVERSE CAST?????
MEDIA DOES NOT EXIST IN A VACUUM. HOW YOU FRAME THINGS VISUALLY MATTERS. WHAT YOU WRITE MATTERS.
How many times do we have to say it? How many foreheads do I have to staple it to before they will finally get the message?
To everyone who does not understand why Lincoln’s death is a “social justice issue”. We expected Lincoln to die, we were prepared for it even, because Ricky gave us so many hints it was kind of a given.
It is the way he died in a time when black men are being killed left and right in very similar ways. It was the fact that it was so graphic. It does not matter that it was “honorable”. Lincoln dying defending Octavia would have been honorable.
There is a visceral reaction to seeing a black man, shot in the head, while chained, kneeling in mud, that you can only truly understand if you are black. It is a call back to the Slave days, the Civil Rights Era and even worse a call back to today. To Jordan Dunn, just listening to his music, Mike Brown with his hands up, Trayvon Martin, walking home with his tea and skittles, Freddie Gray in the back of a police van and Jamar Clarke, who was just trying to get help for his girlfriend.
Please stop telling minorities who are reacting to things that actually affect them in real life that the way they react is wrong. Please do not ignore our feelings and our words.
