SME Confederate Flag Debate
I watched this video a couple years ago and then watched it twice in full yesterday. Everything about this video is wonderful. Every point that’s raised reflects a perspective that’s shared by an enormous swath of the American community while also referencing ongoing debates in the field of semiotics.
The staging of the whole thing is incredible too. There is Drake, the typical constantly triggered white semi-racist guy who’s sort of fascinated with the Confederacy and the theoretical idea of the Confederate flag and with living in his own small world that no one else is allowed into.
There is “the professor” character (Mr. Justice, literally) who is wearing a Guy Fawkes mask shirt and doing a really good job, in terms of tone and word choice etc. of performing this sort of white guy objectivity. He’s probably really into defending atheism and shit too and probably pretty good at it.
Per usual in the US, you think for a while it’s all men in this public discourse until the first girl makes a point while sitting on the floor. Her point is really good and eventually she gets called a racist against Native Americans by some guy who also calls her emotional while he himself appears so voice-cracklingly triggered and defensive its comical. He looks like he likes The Beatles.
But the most wonderful thing perhaps is the tech crew themselves, the one’s behind why this video exists in the first place, which you see throughout. The room is rigged with cameras all over and those filming are the two characters we’ve come to know as behind IT stuff: a) slightly unkempt and overweight guys who love video-games and b) blonde guys in board shorts who will move to California immediately after high school, get into rock climbing, long boarding, and shoot drone shots of sunsets every Friday afternoon. The coalition of blunt-loving longboard bros and Starcraft-loving IT guys is one that will live forever.
The way its shot though is remarkable in that it really brings you in. You really feel there, as though you could be the next person to make a point. And the way it unfolds is so compelling. Students continue to pour in the door as though coming from other classes to add their perspective. The incredible teacher/facilitator who’s seated in the middle of the room holds the space together throughout and seems enormously respected by everybody there.
It’s so good. Towns across the country should hire facilitators to host conversations like these. I feel like that’d be a good way to spend tax dollars.