COMMENT
in two parts:
1) BIRTH Focus OUR attention on a small detail you saw in the clip. It must be something small but meaningful, the kind of little touch that affects the subconscious, the kind of subliminal message that we are not consciously aware of and that is, therefore, that more powerful.
2) without checking, straight from memory, can you summon up a detail from videos, The Italian and cartoons that had the same effect? (Granted, they weren't as sophisticated as Griffith's work.)
REPLY to a detail that you didn't notice but that you find significant and reinforces the main message.
I found the sigh of relief that the white people felt when the Ku Klux Klan(KKK) showed up unsettling. It sends the message that people of different races or ethnicities have a set place on an imaginary totem pole in society. Black people will have to learn their place even if it's by brute force.
ReplyDeleteThis message is expressed in a scene in "The Italian" when Beppo, according to popular opinion, turns into a beast full of rage. And in "Skyscraper" when an Italian man turns violent for being relieved of his duties. These messages are saying that Italians have a predisposition to violence and thus must be treated accordingly, or separately, from others. The same idea is portrayed in the cartoon which is sub-humanism. Italians are rats and not deserving of a piece of the pie( a better life in America). There are other groups or races of people such as whites, that are more deserving.
The detail that stuck with me was the face of the little girl hugging her mother when the African Americans were inside their home, trying to break down the door to their bedroom. The child's face represents fear of the savage African Americans. This stuck with me probably because we, collectively as human beings, tend to take an innocent child's reactions to events much more seriously and much more to the heart than the same reactions of adults.
ReplyDeleteIn the cartoons, we had seen a white child crying because he was afraid of the Italian organ grinder. In "The Black Hand," we had seen the little girl hug her mother in fear when her father had received a threat letter from the Black Hand.
The main message has been to stoke fear in the establishment to justify the treatment and depiction of the subhuman race and what better way to do that than to throw an innocent child amid the chaos? Rabia, that was a sharp observation.
DeleteThank you Jared. I feel that innocent children are always used to get a message across, whether positive or negative. If we look at the Syrian Refugee crisis ongoing at the moment, we always see children at the forefront of advertisements to spread awareness.
DeleteThe woman who stood in the middle of the home paralyzed in fear while a man constantly comforted her sent a clear message. This tells the viewer particularly men that, your mothers, wives and daughters are not safe and need to be protected. It also leaves white women fearful black men.
ReplyDeleteWhen Beppo was mugged by the two Italians it can be likened to the cartoon of the thug, with a painted black hand, standing over a law abiding citizen who he he just mugged. The BlackHand was a name for the criminals that prayed on people in the Italian community.
Jared, I did not notice the paralyzed woman needing saving. It was all chaos to me. Great observation. I think this reinforces the main message that African Americans are someone to be feared, someone to be saved from, someone to lock up. Just as the Black Hand needed to be stopped, the African Americans needed to be stopped.
DeleteWhat stayed with me was that little girl and how she is going to portray the African American that was in her home with her and her mother . from the fear that she showed ,this is something that may stay and shape her mind when it comes to African American . One apple setting the image for the whole people .
ReplyDeleteWhen himself found out that his baby has died . That probably child life would have been saved . innocent at that moment was innocent blaming probably for failing .To carry a burden like that is like carrying the world on yourself shoulders .