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October 26, 2006
Crush It & Beat It
In this short movie, the main message is "you have to break an egg to make an omelet". On one side this is indicating the commiter's of the crimes attempting to prove a point by killing one in order to achieve an overall goal of dominance. A way of "setting the record straight." In the case of Emmett in the book A Wreath For Emmett Till, because of the tragic circumstancs correlated with his death, his story was remembered. Why does it take a tragedy to turn heads? Do you think it's necessary for such horrible crimes to be commmitted in order to get people's attention? Why or why not?
By Jayme Bennett
Posted by at October 26, 2006 12:40 PM | Emmett Till
Comments
THis movie was extremely powerful. Each symbolic movement toward blending in things, crushing things, beating things was juxtaposed by our complacent acceptance of those things as seen by our actions in everyday life. We are always shocked into submission, or recognition but this movie sends the message that it is in our everyday treatment of others that we can resist waiting for that awfl moment to rear its head.
Posted by: Mary F. Wright at October 27, 2006 1:21 PM
Wow, I am stunned into speachlessness.
I think tragedy aids in turning heads faster than any thing else simply because it makes headlines. Beating others down was not new to 1955. Minorities have been disadvantaged throughout history but by 1955 the means of beating down the minority had escelated to such drastic lengths that the problem couldn't go on any longer--in the same logical way as holding your hand on an oven burner. If you to grab a burner at room temp, no problem, right? If it's turned on to 90 degrees, no problem, right? What about 110? 150? When do you reach the point you can no longer ignore the searing of flesh and must release the burner?
Posted by: Amy Moe at October 27, 2006 3:59 PM
You have made an extremely powerful movie! It is really humbling. In response to your question, sometimes I feel our society does need to see and hear about tragedies in order to realize how inhumane we are. I feel our society is extremely egotistical. We think of ourselves. We watch out for ourselves. But what about everyone else? Yes, they may be thinking about themselves. But what about the oppressed? Often individuals who are oppressed, they think of themselves in terms of survivals. We need to start thinking about each other and how our actions influence others' lives. We need to think about he point of view of others. We live in a society and world where everyone is different and diverse. Let's embrace our diversities.
Posted by: Natalie Senske at October 28, 2006 4:10 PM
That is an amazing movie. I don't even know what to say. It was extremely powerful!
Why does it take a tragedy to turn heads? Because people don't like to acknowledge bad things happening until it is so painfully obvious that they have NO CHOICE but to see that it is there. People prefer denial and ignorance to accepting reality; after all, it is the easier route.
I wish it wasn't necessary for the situation to explode before people do something about it, but history seems to show us that's the only time the average person will fight for a cause. I suppose we, as people, don't consider it worthy of a fight until the tragedy.
Posted by: Amanda Powers at October 29, 2006 12:12 PM
Very good movie! It's obvious that you spent a lot of time on this and it ended up to be a really powerful movie!
I think that, it's sad but true that it does take a tradegy to make us really stop and think about certain issues. It's so easy to get caught up in our busy everyday lives and to forget how fragile life can be, and how much we take for granted. It seems like sometimes it takes a tragedy to show us how lucky we are and how lucky we are to have the life we have.
Posted by: Anna Hoffman at October 29, 2006 2:26 PM
People are generally affected by what is in front of them, and are rarely heavily impacted by what lies in the future, or what happens in someone else's town. Its important to see that regardless of where a terrible thing is happening, it is happening and therein lies the problem. The people of the north were "safer" from lynching than those in the south. To avoid tragedy, we need to be aware of its possibility. To be aware of its possibility it actually has to happen. Sad, but true.
Posted by: Emily Haine at October 30, 2006 2:28 PM
People are generally affected by what is in front of them, and are rarely heavily impacted by what lies in the future, or what happens in someone else's town. Its important to see that regardless of where a terrible thing is happening, it is happening and therein lies the problem. The people of the north were "safer" from lynching than those in the south. To avoid tragedy, we need to be aware of its possibility. To be aware of its possibility it actually has to happen. Sad, but true.
Posted by: Emily Haine at October 30, 2006 2:36 PM
I think that this video does such a good job to put the perspective into view. The video is so personal that I think it really fits the question. In the case of Emmet Till his death turned heads, however it was not in vain. Murder is not a tragedy. The loss of life for no reason is.
Posted by: Matt Evensen at November 6, 2006 12:12 PM
Even though it's sad, I do think that most of the time something drastic and horrible must happen for more people to push for change. People's attitudes are generally "oh that could never happen to me"...until it does. Most people need to feel threatened by something to do anything about it, even if they have always thought of it as wrong.
Posted by: Cassandra Rice at November 6, 2006 1:38 PM
Sadly, I think that most times in the media something horrible and violent has to happen to catch someones attention. It is far too often that we hear of the bad and never the good. Emmett's death was horrible and grusome. So what can we do to help fight against this? Well, we need to start doing good things. We need to help! It may sound corny but when people start to do things like pay it forward, and enough people start to join in someone will eventually notice.
Posted by: Sarah at November 16, 2006 5:26 PM
Great posting. I think comments need to raise the discussion, especially if you are hoping to use the comment to build traffic to your own site!
Posted by: Harvey Angelillo at January 15, 2011 1:16 AM