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October 27, 2006
Emmett Till: Gone But Not Forgotten
In our film we wanted to depict the terrible events that surrounded the death of Emmett Till. We wanted to portray the injust tragedy depicted in Merilyn Nelson's book, A Wreath for Emmett Till. Emmett's story stained the tree just as it stained our history. Across the world the words may change but the story remains the same.
In what way does this story still exist today?
Posted by Anna Hoffman at October 27, 2006 03:17 PM | Emmett Till
Comments
Trees are rarely blood stained of lynchings anymore; however, there are many others ways in which we stain our world. We segregate ourselves from others that are different from ourselves. We blame others for our problems. We show hatred for those who have different lifestyles than us. And staining our world does not need to include hateful, physical actions. We can still stain our world with our words. Do we need to repeat distasteful racist jokes? NO! Should we say "that is so gay" when we hate a t-shirt at a store? NO. All of these verbal slurs are staining our world.
Posted by: Natalie Senske at October 28, 2006 04:15 PM
There are numerous instances of brutality and hatred of people towards others. Around the world there are people killing people they dont' even know simply because they are different. The United States even has a special term for it: "hate crimes." These are generally racially motivated crimes (although I belive they are expanding the definition of a hate crime); they are ALWAYS crimes against a person based on external information (ie. color of skin). In this way and many others, Emmitt Till's story still exists today.
Posted by: Amanda Powers at October 29, 2006 12:18 PM
A tragedy is a constant event staining our history with blood. It can be from Genocides in Rwanda, to school shootings so close to home. All with huge impacts, yet all with such touchy topics that many will hesitate before wanting to stop it. And with these tragedies, heads are turned towards the problem for the first time like in the book A Wreath For Emmett Till, when an innocent child is ended. Hate crimes will exist as long as hate exists. Which sadly ensures your question that even though it's not lynchings, it's things of equally horrible statures.
Posted by: Jayme Bennett at November 5, 2006 02:12 PM
This situation still remains because of the evil and hate of mankind. Your video was excellent, and I also enjoy your question. In the story, it takes place years ago. However, the murder and hate in the story is something that can be seen everytime the TV is turned on.
Posted by: Matt Evensen at November 6, 2006 12:14 PM
I believe that many events today reflect the same "staining" as with what happened to Emmett Till. The war in Iraq, hate crimes, stereotypes are all staining our history. The future generations hopefully will have better attitudes than we do, and look back at us like we do on the people of Emmett Till's time.
Posted by: Cassandra Rice at November 6, 2006 01:42 PM
I think that cases like Emmitt Till still exsist today, but fortunatly not as many cases are seen in todays society. I think there will always be a small group of people that think they are better than a certain race, gender, ect. The thing I plan to do personally is to teach my own children about the bad things that happen and how they can stop it by happening. In a perfect world we can teach kids NOT to be racist so they can make tomorrows society better.
Posted by: Sarah at December 7, 2006 09:07 PM