The Crimes against Our People!
The video begins with the camera following a young black male about the age of 8. This is how many assaults begin to take place. This is only one child out of the many children in the video but we can see how he sets the tone in the first few seconds and prepares for what we about to experience. The setting of this video is at a park in Harlem, NY. This is a city that has a large minority population so it is clearly a relevant topic in the area.
The visual features black and Hispanic youth similar to those that were unjustly slain in recent years. It is an obvious problem in the nation that only gets attention when it occurs and is forgotten soon after.
This videos features only males between the ages about 8 to 17. Perhaps society feels like the males are the biggest target because there are no large cases of females being struck down. Now that is not to say that it does not happen, but when it does the cases are not as publicized.
This visual features these youth holding literal targets in front of themselves. While holding these targets they ask questions pertaining to why someone would want to assault or even kill them.
It would seem each child designed their own target to hold according to their feelings of vulnerability. Each was unique and brought a different point of view to light on the violence taking place in their neighborhood.
In the middle of the video the children begin to give their opinion on why they think such violence is taking place. Being that they are young children their reasoning on the situation is rather black and white. As the visual comes to a close, the children begin to give reasons why their life is just as important as anyone else in this country or in the world for that matter.
Though the visual does not offer any personal information on the kids or their upbringing, one thing is for sure; they know this society favors white children over them. So first we see one kid who is being followed; he turns around and asks why. Before we know it, we are seeing multiple youth who are wondering why these crimes are happening against their kind. The next thing that may pop out are the targets and the uniqueness of them. At last, we see the child from the beginning expressing that every child’s as well as those were killed, lives indeed matter.
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Counterintuitive Spring 2024 
Thanks for posting early, MoneyTrees. I’ll be back with feedback when I get a break. Meanwhile, two things:
1. If I ask you to categorize this post so we can find it later, will you know how to do that? Please do.
2. To be able to evaluate your post, I’ll need to view the video eventually. Please provide a url so I can find it. (If you can figure out how to link the url to a bit of text in your post, that would be best. Otherwise, just drop the long address into your post as text. Thanks.)
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http://www.upworthy.com/young-innocent-boys-a-simple-question-and-im-devastated?c=hpstream
Here is the url for the video I chose to write about in my second assignment.
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Thanks for the link, Moneytrees. In class tomorrow, I’ll show you how to anchor that url to any bit of text in your posts, as I have anchored it to the word Link below.
Click this LINK to open MoneyTree’s video!
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Good afternoon prof,
For assignment number 3 can we still write in any format we choose or are there guidelines for formatting?
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1) There are no guidelines for formatting your Stone Money post, moneytrees.
2) You still have not categorized this post. It needs to be in the A02: Visual Rhetoric category AND the moneytrees category. Otherwise, it will get lost and not show up in searches.
3) Please don’t violate the anonymity of usernames. If we’re not strict in their use, the department will disallow the blog.
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OK, MoneyTrees, I followed your link and watched your video, muted. I didn’t want to be distracted by the text while I experienced the Visual Rhetoric of the piece. I still haven’t listened to the audio, but I’ve watched the video twice. Let’s see how you analyzed the visuals, Paragraph by Paragraph (P by P).
P1. I’m immediately impressed by your observation that “this is how many assaults [begin to] take place.” That’s a brilliant point. The vulnerable child alone is being followed. Clever.
But you haven’t mentioned where. Remember my advice in the title of the post about Visual Rhetoric: Say What You’ve Seen Before You Say What You Know. Is it relevant that the child is entering a park?
You jump so quickly from the single child to a massive generalization about the entire two minutes: “features black and Hispanic youth.” We’ve barely been introduced to the first child, and you’ve already glossed over the entire cast. Slow down.
P2. Moneytrees, you’ve called these young people “youth” twice already, after first identifying the first child as a “male.” In the first two paragraphs you haven’t mentioned that all the children are male, mostly boys, with a sprinkling of adolescents, late teens, or early adults. But no girls. Did you not notice? Care to address the significance?
Where are they? Are they all together? Do they command the screen individually, collectively? Are they speaking? You say youth hold targets, but you don’t describe them. You say “It would seem each child designed their own target,” but you give us NO indication how you would ever have come to that conclusion. Read that post again. Look at the images of the empty wallet; empty pockets. You can’t say “because he has no money” and expect a reader to accept it. You can say, “because he turns out his pockets to show they’re empty, we understand he has no money.” See the difference?
P3. There isn’t a single visual observation in this paragraph. You are a smart thinker and a straightforward writer. I don’t object at all to the work you’re doing here except that it doesn’t address the assignment at all.
P4. Repeat my remarks from P3.
P5. Good stuff. Entirely appropriate for another assignment, but sadly, not for this one.
Watch again with the sound off. You are completely distracted by the subject matter of the video, understandably so. The material, but mostly your reaction to the material, has you mesmerized. There will be plenty of time to express your opinions on matters of importance. What I want you to express yourself on HERE is the nature of the visual you’re viewing, what it communicates, how it manipulates, whether it’s effective or not in supplementing what the speakers have to say, what their signs say.
I would have no idea from reading your description that most of the targets are MUCH MORE than simple, colored, concentric circles. The visuals are VERY interesting, but you’ve ignored them.
I’ll stop now. I imagine you get my point. Please don’t be discouraged. You’re obviously conceptually skilled. This is a different skill.
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Hello Prof. Hodges. I have thoroughly read your comments and made changes i felt were relevant . Since i went paragraph by paragraph, i have a few questions about some of your own concerns. In paragraph 2 you asked if the kids were all together and say i do not describe the targets.
I do not believe there is anyway to determine if they are all together or not since the backgrounds are all different. It is likely that the kids are not all together filming this all at once however it is possible that they are. As for the targets I am not sure what more significance they would have other than the fact that they are targets and that is the point. Whether they designed them themselves or not, the targets are clearly all unique.
As for paragraph 5, can you explain why this would be good for another assignment and not this one?
Thank You
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Hi, moneytrees. I appreciate that you’re following up on your followup! You ask good questions.
Yes, that’s accurate.
Not true. My question was: do the youth appear on screen together, or do we see them each individually? I know the answer, but I can’t tell at all from your visual analysis. It’s a major omission for a feather of the video that is so prominent, that one-at-a-time encounter with child after child.
Not true. I asked because we get absolutely no idea what the targets look like, or how they’re different. You say they’re unique, but they might just be different styles of commercially-available target practice targets. One might be concentric circles, another a black silhouette of a person, another a gun-sight crosshair. The fact that the targets appear to have been made personally by young people is an EXTREMELY important feature of the emotional impact of the video. It makes their pleas very personal, harder to ignore, more heartbreaking. Agreed?
Sure. A visual analysis is not a reflection on the social situation exposed by the video. It’s not a chance to try to persuade readers that a serious topic that requires our attention is being neglected, etc. Its job is to describe the argument the creator is making, and how she accomplishes it with images and action on the screen. Any other editorializing (however well made) is irrelevant.
Does most of this make sense to you, moneytrees?
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Still needs one last polish to be more specific about what we’re SEEING in the video. As good and as impassioned as the last paragraph is, its quality adds nothing to the grade since its content is irrelevant to a visual analysis.
Grade Code 2E7
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Feedback requested.
Feedback provided. —DSH
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Your improvements to the conclusion don’t do your assignment any harm, moneytrees, but they don’t do it any good either. I can’t insist that you take the visual any more seriously than you want to, but if you don’t, you’re not conducting a visual analysis. I think you’ve been given sufficient models of how to conduct one, and plenty of feedback indicating how important it is for you to convey what we’re seeing. The rest is up to you. Awaiting your reply.
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