Remember Gil Scott-Heron's famous song-- The Revoultion Will Not Be Televised? He produced the song in 1970, and maybe started Rap music with that poem spoken to congas and bongo drums. A brilliant song, no doubt. But I think Scott-Heron guessed incorrectly on one point-- the revolution actually will be televised.
Marshall McLuhan, the brilliant media philosopher, felt print media, books, newspapers, etc. had not been especially kind to the situation of African-Americans. The electronic formats-- radio, television, computers, cellphones, Twitter, etc.-- make things more immediate and personal than the traditional forms of written communication. Digital communication has changed all of us in profound ways, as McLuhan correctly surmised.
The Civil Rights movement really got started in the Sixties with the rise of television. Now we have an array of communication formats- and individuals participate on their own through Twitter and Facebook.
CNN covers the race riots in Baltimore and Ferguson and amazingly nobody, or very few, get killed. Everything is up close and personal and moves in an instant-- the news creates news. The digital world of instant communication brings us all closer. Changes happen faster. The digital universe seems a add an element of compassion for fellow human beings that was lacking in the pre-digital days. If television ended the Vietnam War, maybe the social network and electronic vortex ends racial discord-- or at least turns the corner on racial divisions.
We see a cellphone recording of Eric Garner being killed on the streets of Staten Island. Demonstrations happen. Some police officers are ambushed and murdered, seemingly in retaliation for Eric Garner's death. The demonstrations subside. The information comes to us in a steady stream. Each event becomes a media event and another event rises from it. Ferguson, Missouri follows a similar pattern but the demonstrations turn violent.
The next development is a recording that shows Freddie Gray being arrested on the streets of Baltimore. He screams for help. His legs seem immobilized and he mysteriously dies while in police custody. The immediacy of the horror brings people to the streets almost instantly. Young kids communicate via cellphone and organize a plunder of the local mall. But, the riots end in a single day. Everything moves quickly. The peaceful leaders of the African-American community move into the streets. College kids come to Baltimore and immediately start sweeping the streets clean of debris. The Bloods and Crips put their hatred aside and work together! We meet an impressive "Mom of the Year" popping her son in the head and successfully getting him out of the riot. We admire her courage. We learn about each other quickly and suddenly community leaders take control of the streets.
Baltimore does not get burned to the ground-- like the neighborhoods that went up in flames following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. The violence never reaches the epic proportions of the riots in Los Angeles in 1994, following the Rodney King beating.
The revolution actually is being televised-- along with a million other forms of coverage by the citizens-- but it still is a revolution, a revolution of compassion. Mr. McLuhan got it right! But he said there would be all kinds of disharmony and a cacophony of voices and opinions rising in the new environment-- just like any other village.
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