Does Posting Videos of Black People Being Murdered by the Police Work to Inform or Traumatize?

Writer: Kimani Leftridge

While police brutality has been commonplace in the United States since the conception of the police force, recently there has been more publicity surrounding the issue. Contemporary discourses on police brutality/police-community relations has gained more traction as cases of unarmed Black people being murdered by the police become more publicized due to social media.

Many would argue that this modern conversation officially began with the murder of Trayvon Martin, although he was not killed by a police officer, his death did demonstrate how often Black people are neglected by the system that is supposedly sworn to protect them. Before Trayvon’s untimely death, a young man by the name of Oscar Grant was murdered by Oakland police on New Year’s Day in 2009, the entire incident was caught on video.

Since then we have seen countless other Black people brutally murdered by the police, and just like Oscar Grant some of them were even caught on video.

Just recently, a woman by the name of Pamela Shantay Turner was murdered by Texas police and the footage of her unfortunate demise was spread across the internet. These occurrences raise a very important question, does posting videos of Black people being murdered serve any cause?

Many would argue that while these images may be graphic and upsetting, it effectively informs those who are unaware of these injustices. In fact, they may postulate that the shocking nature of the footage will be what will ultimately spark change in our communities. Spreading such content across the internet makes it nearly impossible for someone to hide from it and some feel that may be a good thing.

Others insist that the reality of police brutality is something that the masses are very awareful and at this point any ignorance is willful. Plastering videos and pictures of slain Black people online will only traumatize people further, especially other Black folk. The argument is that we don’t need to see those things in order to understand what’s going on, many even believe that this just another instance of the media indulging in “Black trauma porn” and “getting off” on seeing African Americans facing adversity.

This is a difficult topic for everyone to discuss but it begs a very essential question, does posting videos of Black people being murdered by the police work to inform or traumatize?