PHONY 2012
Jason Thomas
The
Kony 2012 campaign promoted by Invisible Children gained infamy after releasing
a promotional video on YouTube in March 2012.
The thirty minute video features the story of Jason Russell, his five
year old son, oh yeah, and children suffering in Uganda under a military
regime. The first five to ten minutes of
the video seem to focus more on Russell’s story rather than calling out his
humanitarian goals; if you can call them that.
Russell’s story goes on, telling of his trip to Uganda and a boy named
Jacob, a former child soldier captured by Joseph Kony. Kony, a militant tyrant, was capturing
children and forcing them to be in his army; forcing them to kill. After telling the story of Jacob and Kony,
Russell calls the viewer to act by “making Kony famous” and by making donations
to the Invisible Children Organization.
While this video seems to have good
intentions, there are underlying messages and information gaps peppered
throughout. Overall, the video seems to
be more about a white family (Russell and his five year old son) feeling
obligated to help poor defenseless black Ugandans, rather than focusing on the
situation in Uganda. It seems as if
Russell wants us to know he and other white people are acting as a voice for a
disadvantaged people more than the real situation. This has been a problem since the beginning
of humanitarian efforts in Africa.
Instead of working with the local government, we feel we know what
“they” need because we feel we are superior.
Some of the outrage from the film came from the “make Kony famous” ploy
which was intended to eventually lead the U.S. government to find and eliminate
him as a threat. Many Ugandans argued
that this would solve nothing except to put more fuel on the fire. After
watching this video, Ugandans were outraged by its content and how they were
portrayed. Several response videos were
posted by Ugandans declaring they do have a voice and they are not helpless
just because they are black or because they are African.
Like other humanitarian media coming
out of Africa, this video creates a racial stereotype of Africans, specifically
black Africans, as weak, inferior, and desperately in need of help. This creates
racial stereotypes just as easily by showing another race as inferior and
unable to self-govern. This has been the
case with images coming out of Africa since the early twentieth century. We have been using negative images to label
an entire continent of black humans as inferior beings. All while making ourselves feel good because
we feel we are saving them from themselves.
White Americans have been programmed by videos like Kony 2012 to believe
that whites are superior because of the
simple fact that we are white.
In the Justin Bieber era of YouTube
and self-regulated social media, it is easy to become misinformed simply by
clicking play. Anyone from anywhere can
post anything on the internet. If it
gets enough traction and “shared” enough times, it somehow gains credibility. While this video does misinform it does
create a call to action. It is our
responsibility as viewers to do additional research to get the full story. Videos like Kony 2012 should only be used as
a catalyst for increasing ones knowledge on a subject otherwise unknown to
them. After having a full understanding
of the cause and the context of the situation, only then can one truly make an
educated decision. Without contextual
knowledge the viewer of videos like this will only become more partial to their
own superiority. This video is just one
example of the social media’s role in forming our perception of others.
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