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Sunday, July 5, 2015

"Don't Shoot!" [Video]

Below is a contribution from philosopher and author Chris Sunami
He brings us the following video, shares about what the project has meant to him. 

Vocals by Jay Hollin, 59's Finest and Ray Pearson. Violin by Christian Howes. Production by the Green Raver and Christopher Sunami. Video by thevoid.


"Don't shoot!"

Despite the controversy over whether Michael Brown actually said it, the phrase seems ever more painfully apt with each new incident of violence in the news. This song and video grew organically, out of a collaborative process, so I can't tell you what it was supposed to mean --instead I can only tell you how it speaks to me, why I'm proud of it, and why I think it's important for people to see and hear it.

If you only watched the television, or read the newspaper, your picture of the anti-brutality protests in Ferguson and other places around the country is probably one of racial division and strife, anger, looting, riots and revenge. That's the portrait painted by network coverage. It has been said that artists are the real truth tellers, but unfortunately, when it comes to an artistic response, many of the biggest recording artists have been curiously silent, both about the original incidents of violence and about the subsequent response. What music has been recorded largely replays the same message of anger and revenge.

Watching this video, you'll see something strikingly different. You'll see people of all ages, races, religions and nations coming together, not in anger, but in peace, in solidarity, and in affirmation of the value of every human life. This video is the face of a nation --not the one shown on the nightly news, but a better nation, one that fights hatred with love, and racial divisiveness with unity. 

This is the nation I claim citizenship in, and no matter what happens, I refuse to be divided from it. If you feel the same way, I hope you'll share this song and video with others --images are important, and what we see becomes our reality.

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By Their Strange Fruit by Katelin H is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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