Introduction
In “The Cameras on Your Phone Make Black People Invisible,” Ian Williams uses various satirical and metaphorical techniques that are designed to draw readers’ attention to the problem of bias against the black population. The author seeks to draw attention to the fact that in the modern world, filled with various possibilities of fixing events, there is still room for skepticism, which justifies undisguised cruelty towards black people. Ian Williams demonstrates that, collectively, people often shift the focus of their attention from the essence of the problem, shifting it to unrelated things. The author conveys this idea using the primary metaphor that the camera phone has a special filter that hides black people. Therefore, this analysis will be aimed at taking a closer look at the problem of systematic racism and open bias against the black population of the United States.
Biased Attitude
The relevance of this research topic is due to the fact that the problems of race relations and systemic discrimination against the black population in the United States is a complicated topic. The coexistence of a large number of ethnic-racial groups in American society for several centuries has led to the emergence of many problems and conflicts in all spheres of public life. At the turn of the XX and XXI centuries, new forms of discrimination emerged, and their essence and manifestations were transformed (Banaji et al.). The events taking place in modern America suggest that despite the successes achieved through the actions of social movements and organizations that advocated for civil rights in the 1950s – 1960s, deeply rooted prejudices and stereotypes of a racist nature are still present in the minds of white and black Americans.
Despite the fact that black and white Americans have equal rights, their daily lives are hardly the same. According to various studies, even more than 150 years after the abolition of slavery, African Americans continue to face problems that seriously affect their position in society (Braveman et al. 171). What exactly is meant by systemic racism? Here is one example: back in the days of racial segregation, American investors divided cities into favorable and unfavorable zones (Banaji et al.). Money was invested in areas where the working white majority lived, infrastructure was built there, and banks willingly gave loans to local residents (Banaji et al.). At the same time, in the black neighborhoods, where the poor and less educated descendants of formerly enslaved people lived compactly, there was no talk of any investments (Braveman et al. 173). Banks refused to give loans to African Americans, and agents did not sell them real estate in white neighborhoods.
BLM activists believe that black Americans are in constant danger because of the biased attitude of the state and the police. Therefore, in their opinion, the slogan All Lives Matter is not entirely correct, as it diverts attention from the problem African Americans face to a greater extent. Ian Williams also draws attention to this since media often divert the focus of perception from the actual problem (Williams). In this point, the author criticizes the current political climate since social media – “cameras on phones” – hide the essence of the problem, not contributing to its practical solution (Williams). BLM became widely known in 2014 after Eric Garner died from a chokehold that a New York police officer used on him during his arrest (GBD 2019 Police Violence US Subnational Collaborators 1250). Garner’s case is in many ways reminiscent of the death of George Floyd. The man also shouted that he could not breathe, and the video of his detention provoked protests. That same year, a white police officer from Ferguson shot and killed Michael Brown.
In both cases, the guards were not criminally responsible, which caused outrage among African Americans. According to the Mapping Police Violence research group, African Americans are twice as likely to be killed by police than whites (GBD 2019 Police Violence US Subnational Collaborators 1253). According to the same statistics, black citizens killed by the police are 1.5 times more likely than whites to be unarmed. In 2019, 24% of all those killed by the police were blacks (GBD 2019 Police Violence US Subnational Collaborators 1250). In 99% of cases, no charges are brought against law enforcement officers for cases of fatal arrests (GBD 2019 Police Violence US Subnational Collaborators 1245). Modern society very often faces various problems. Since there are practically no mono-national countries left in the world, the problem of racial discrimination is acute. Ian Williams notes this, saying that he no longer lives in America but still fears for himself and does not feel that there is any particular bias towards him (Williams). Consequently, this problem occupies an essential place in the current political conjuncture.
Conclusion
The United States, being one of the most developed countries in the world, is traditionally considered a free country with unlimited equal opportunities for each of its citizens, regardless of skin color, race, religious beliefs, or lifestyle. This opinion exists, perhaps, in every corner of the globe but not in America itself. The United States continues to be a rather complex entity consisting of many constituent elements that are unlikely to be able to make the country a single monolithic structure. Ian Williams uses metaphor and satire to draw readers’ attention to the fact that people often remain blind to problems that do not directly concern them. Consequently, this leads to the fact that many problems of blacks are ignored. This is due to an ingrained perception and deep bias regarding their lifestyle and behavior.
That is why, when people see the video, they prefer to shift the focus of the problem, to look for solutions that do not contribute to reducing societal tension. The reason is excessive suspicion and systematic racism, which worsens the problem and the current political reality. In all cases, despite the differences in legal systems, law enforcement officers’ behavior and motivation are similar. Racial prejudice, stereotypes, and profiling of suspects fuel all their actions. Despite some initiatives to establish the truth and compensate for damages, including the perpetuation of memory, recognition of injustice, apologizing, and conducting trials, the United States does not draw conclusions from the mistakes of the colonial past and does not take into account the legacy of the past in its current policy.
It is necessary to pay attention to how people interact with each other in the context of the media space. Even despite the fact that there is much more information, and it is available to almost everyone, people continue to remain blind to the evidence that word filters work on camera phones. The satire demonstrated by Ian Williams proves that the current political situation is imbued with a certain kind of value for evidence of a systematic negative and biased attitude towards the black population of the United States.
Works Cited
Banaji, Mahzarin R et al. “Systemic racism: individuals and interactions, institutions and society.” Cognitive research: principles and implications vol. 6,1 82. 2021.
Braveman, Paula A., et al. “Systemic and Structural Racism: Definitions, Examples, Health Damages, and Approaches to Dismantling.” Health Affairs, vol. 41, no. 2, Health Affairs (Project Hope), 2022, pp. 171–78.
GBD 2019 Police Violence US Subnational Collaborators. “Fatal Police Violence by Race and State in the USA, 1980–2019: A Network Meta-regression.” The Lancet, vol. 398, no. 10307, 2021, pp. 1239–55.
Williams, Ian. “The Cameras on Your Phones Make Black People Invisible.” Macleans.ca, Web.