Black Witnessing, Body Cams, and the Enduring Fight for the Whole Truth

Chapter 9 investigates how the moral panic inspired by Black Lives Matter triggered the body cam backlash. This additional layer of surveillance is more invasive than any other form of police video, such as cruiser dash cams, helicopter camera footage, or street corner blue lights, as Dr. Richardson has argued. Body cams also privilege the viewpoint of the officer and restore the official narrative into the hands of the powerful. Dr. Richardson explains how this next frontier of “toutveillance,” where everyone is watching everyone, could imperil the gaze of black witnesses.

#NoFilter

Chapter 8 highlights the horror associated with peering into the forbidden spaces of state-sponsored violence against black bodies. Many activists in the movement have experienced mysterious, untimely deaths, and suicides. Even distant African American witnesses have reported a reluctance to view smartphone videos of fatal police encounters anymore, citing severe trauma. This chapter complicates our discussion of black witnessing, therefore, to wrestle with the question of whether these videos have become like lynching postcards.

The Origins of Bearing Witness While Black

Chapter 2 traces the genealogy of black witnesses through three overlapping eras of domestic terrorism against African Americans: slavery, lynching, and police brutality. Black storytellers in each of these timeframes leveraged the technologies of their day to produce emancipatory news. In this manner, advocacy journalism has remained a central component of black liberation for more than 200 years—from slave narratives to smartphones.

#StayWoke

In chapter 4, the activists explain how their brand of grassroots protest journalism has helped them highlight the use of excessive police force in the United States. They also discuss the risks that are associated with being hyper-visible, such as state-sponsored intimidation, doxing, and online trolling.

#WorkWoke

Chapter 5 offers a personal account of the author’s brushes with police brutality to frame a broader discussion about the rise of the parallel #SayHerName movement in 2015. The author illustrates how activists have channeled their rage against inequitable systems into social movements, which are often labors of love. The activists explain how their ancestors’ work fuels them to continue to bear witness, even in increasingly polarized times.

#BeforeYouWatch

Chapter 6 presents a social media analysis of the activists’ timelines that reveals an incredible reliance upon smartphones to create and distribute breaking movement-related news. This chapter explores the gift and the curse of these devices for today’s freedom fighters. It also outlines six steps in activist media production going from (1) observation to (2) discussion on to (3) authentication of potential news stories and then to (4) production, (5) publication, and finally (6) agitation throughout various counterpublics.

Epilogue

The book’s epilogue outlines the major legislative advances inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and the strides made by the 15 activists in the two-to-three years that followed their initial interviews in 2016 and 2017.

Shooting Back

Chapter 7 explores the powerful, deliberate, and fresh iconography that Black Lives Matter activists have inspired. They have used historic juxtapositions, symbolic deaths, and satiric Internet memes to create supporting imagery for their news stories. Many of these approaches have evolved the images of black protest—from the iconic photographs of snarling German shepherds and lunch counter sit-ins, to the contemporary depictions of human chains across highways and mass die-ins.

The New Protest #Journalism

Chapter 3 introduces the 15 activists who are interviewed for the book. They fall into five broad groups: (1) the Black Lives Matter activists; (2) the “Day 1’s”; (3) the Masters of Agitprop; (4) the Bards; and (5) the Rogues. The Black Lives Matter activists were leaders who self-identified as members of the formal organization. The Day 1’s were the frontline protestors of Ferguson who believed their actions galvanized the movement. The Masters of Agitprop were the creatives who used art as propaganda for the movement. The Bards provided the soundtrack to the movement, blending hip-hop, poetry, and prose to spread news. Lastly, the Rogues were associated loosely with all of these groups, but refused to be labeled Black Lives Matter activists for a variety of reasons.

Looking as Rebellion

Chapter 1 outlines the book’s concept of black witnessing by giving it three characteristics: it (1) assumes an investigative editorial stance to advocate for African American civil rights; (2) co-opts racialized online spaces to serve as its ad-hoc news distribution service; and (3) relies on interlocking black public spheres, which are endowed with varying levels of political agency, to engage diverse audiences.