The Feedback Loop
By Emma Cahill and Meagan Burston
Throughout our course we have read and talked about a variety of different novels that all relate back to the big topic of racial inequality in America. In each novel, the authors talk about this topic in unique ways using personal stories, metaphors, and imagery. The authors never lose sight of the big picture. One of the most impactful metaphors that we discussed in class is the meaning behind “The Feedback Loop.” These African American authors have had such an impact with their work and they have given so much hope to the black youth of America. They have been able to successfully educate others about the constant racial inequality that continues to happen in America. As we have discussed in class, our country’s history displays a constant back and forth fight for equal rights of black Americans. The main question we will be answering as you read, is “What is the Feedback Loop?”
From the novel The Fire This Time, Isabel Wilkerson’s “Where Do We Go From Here”, Wilkerson talks about how no matter how much progress our country makes towards equal rights, a violent backlash occurs, thus erasing the progress. She writes: “We seem to be in a continuing feedback loop of repeating a past that our country has yet to address… Our history is one of spectacular achievement followed by a violent backlash that threatens to erase the gains ”(59). Wilkerson introduces this idea of a never ending cycle to her readers. Wilkerson then goes on to discuss how our country’s history is full of great achievements toward equal rights. However, these achievements are almost always followed by some sort of backlash that diminishes everything that the country had just obtained.
In another section from the same piece of writing, Wilkerson says, “We may have believed that, if nothing else, the civil rights movement had defined a bar beneath which could not fall. But history tells us otherwise” (59). Here, she restates her initial point by referring to the civil rights era. She claims that this time may not have been as successful as one would think. Wilkerson also mentions, “The last reversal of black advancement was so crushing that historians called it the Nadir. It followed the leaps African Americans made after enslavement, during the cracked window of opportunity known as Reconstruction” (60). Wilkerson continues to mention historical instances that support the idea of the feedback loop, which makes the reader think back and make the connection for themselves. Wilkerson’s use of imagery and metaphors allows readers to get a better understanding of the concept of the feedback loop, as mentioned in the beginning of “Where Do We Go From Here.”
This idea of a continuous loop is discussed again in “White Rage” by Carol Anderson, when she talks about how each African American advancement in society is always met with retaliation. Anderson writes, “For every action of African American advancement, there’s a reaction, a backlash” (84). Throughout her writing, Anderson touches on numerous examples of massive waves of aggression toward Black Americans throughout different historical American events. Similar to Wilkerson, Anderson also mentions the civil rights era. She discusses how the North’s victory of the American Civil War “did not bring peace” (84), but instead incited an explosion of discriminatory acts towards Black Americans. Laws and policies were put into place to both diminish the lives of and incriminate black Americans. Anderson mentions another instance of this backlash when she discusses the case of Brown vs Board of Education, which sought to diminish racial segregation in schools. However, as Anderson points out, with every victory, there is resistance. Black children were met with violence and anger, as hoards of people crowded outside of their schools. These examples support the idea of this recurring cycle of discrimination towards black Americans.
The 2018 film The Hate U Give captures the idea of this never ending loop of racial discrimination. The film follows the life of a sixteen-year-old named Starr Carter, played by Amandla Stenberg, who moves between two worlds during her high school career: the poor neighborhood where she lives, and the fancy suburban school she attends. In the beginning of the movie, Starrs father Maverick gives them a talk and he tells them about the reality of what it’s like to get pulled over. This is one of the more important scenes throughout the film because it shows how dangerous something that simple can be for a black American in today’s society. You can see the intensity in facial expressions and his tone of voice because he wants his children to take him seriously.
The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death made a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. What everyone wants to know is: what really happened that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. We decided to include this movie because of the main idea of the movie, which is racial inequality in America.
Throughout the film, we see the community come together to protest the killing of Khalil. This movie connects to this idea of the feedback loop because of how society responds to these protests. Starr and her community initiate a movement against police brutality, and bring awareness to the issue and to the story of Khalil. However, any progress that they made was reversed, when police began confronting these protests with violence. There is a feeling of cruel irony as this takes place: protests against police brutality are met with even more police brutality. The movie does a phenomenal job of capturing the struggle for Black Americans to progress in our country.
With this film and the pieces of writing discussed earlier in mind, it is clear that our country has had a history of reversing the success of black advancement. Throughout class, we have seen a continuous back and forth between gains and losses. With every step forward towards racial equality, our country seems to take two steps back. These instances of resistance diminish the success and effectiveness of progressive movements, and enforces society’s implicit bias towards Black Americans. When exploring this idea of endless discrimination, we have to ask ourselves, what happens next? What can be done in order to stop this phenomenon? We have seen very little evidence of this issue improving. If anything, the circumstances are only getting worse.
