The Real Strange Thing About the Johnsons

If you haven’t seen the short film “The Strange thing about the Johnsons” directed by Ari Aster — there’s no need to google it. Trust and believe that you can ignore all the tweets, Facebook posts, and Reddit feeds, surrounding this video because you are not missing out on anything important.

For those of you who don’t know, the 30-minute drama surrounds a family in which the son is found to have been sexually abusing his father for years on end, until it comes to a dramatic end in which both the father and son die.

Whether you’ve already scarred your eyes watching it or not, the point is that this was the worst possible time for this video to ‘coincidentally’ make a reappearance. It’s black history month (BHM) and yet the current most popular topic about black people is that of a “strange black family”. Not Martin Luther King jr., W.E.B Du Bois, or even modern activists like the founding women of black lives matter — just a disturbing video.

So, we must question, is it even a coincidence? One black poet, Kevyn Teape, refuses to accept the timing. In his poem titled “The Strangest Thing About the Johnsons” he says:

“This as an attack on the image of Black people to make them look feeble.

During a month that’s set up for the purposeful projection of

Said Black People.”

This isn’t an accusation made in paranoia, but rather based on one fact that is undeniably strange. This film wasn’t just made in 2016 — it was brought back from the depths of the year 2011.

In this politically and racially charged time, particularly with President Trump in office, it’s not only unsurprising that attacks would be made during BHM but expected. Of course, like much racism today however, many attacks are cloaked.

While people may not be out rioting in the streets, scrutinizing BHM, it’s just as easy to have a similar effect by sharing the same thoughts online or even more discretely by simply bringing attention away from it. Hence, this video.

Of course someone with an agenda of hate would love to share something like such and associate this “strange” label and stigma with black people. It’s not weird — most of us have used this tactic ourselves and all of us saw it used quite efficiently just last year.

Just as Trump took attention away from Hillary during the election process by making a scene everyday on his own campaign trail and thereby grabbing all the media’s attention, this video is distracting everyone. The fact that Trump could even pull democrats without most noticing his plot speaks to how effective this method is.

It’s unfortunate that those of us without an agenda don’t even realize we’re helping fuel those people and making their mission successful. While some of us may watch the video and only bat an eye at the weird vibe we were left with, others come away with different thoughts.

Some are now only reminded of the multiplicity of negative traits attached to black people and others will now associate sexual assault and incest with black people. Either way, it’s bad.

Hence, as tempting as it may be to share this awkwardly entertaining video with friends, it needs to stop. There’s still a week left of black history month and even more time left to live on this Earth. We should spend the rest of it focused on the real issues needing discussion and appreciating the progress we’ve made. Stop sharing and bring the attention back to where it should be.

Medium Staff Bridget Todd Black Lives Matter Patrisse Marie Cullors-Brignac Opal Tometi alicia garza