Voices of the Past and Future
by Gemma Brand-Wolf
In the last few days, tragedy has struck. It has overwhelmed a country already so tired, so weary of fear, of pain, of inequality. These losses are mourned, grieved with more than just sorrow, but with anger and desperation. The members of the black community are left feeling vulnerable and unprotected in their own homes. This country is afraid of the future. This tragedy is not a new one. Racial discrimination has existed since the first person claimed and enforced superiority over another, based simply and irrevocably on the pigmentation of skin. Tragedy has plagued this country, this world, from the moment one person compared, contrasted, and segregated his fellow human beings. How can skin, intended to shield our bodies from pain and injury, inspire so much suffering and discrimination? And if our skin is not able to protect us, how can we protect each other, how can our voices be heard?
In the past, the regulation and censorship of self-expression has acted as a major tool in quieting the voices of the minority, of those hurting in a community. During the Holocaust, the Nazis effectively controlled the German public’s perception of all cultural life and all but eradicated the German modernist movement in order to silence the Jews. The National Socialists censured and regulated art as a means of cultural warfare, condemning esteemed artists and destroying invaluable works of art in an attempt to annihilate the cultural identity of millions. In a speech at the 1937 opening of the Haus der Deutschen Kunst (German House of Art), Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialists, described art as “‘the expression of all that molds and sets its stamp on the present age’”. While Hitler was referring to the movement of modern art in pre-Nazi Germany, his words also ring frighteningly close to home when thinking about social media and the social and political impact of channels such as Instagram or Facebook. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, “social media platforms dominate today’s information ecosystem” with the ability to censor, regulate, and direct the public mind. While Hitler’s message influenced the global community, social media’s power is infinitely more expansive, and has the potential to be world-dominating. In the wake of last week’s tragedy, and in the face of a future captured by social media, how can we prevent discrimination, racialism, and prejudice on a scale so immensely greater than ever before?
There are so many questions, overarching in their breadth, and yet, there are so few answers, so few voices that are heard. Art, music, and literature are the voices of the people, the indomitable representation of the minority. In today’s world of technological connectivity, these are not the only media with which to express ourselves. Undeniably, “free speech, self-expression, […] are […] huge benefits of social media”. While social media directly promotes the democratic principles of the First Amendment, it also highlights a reflection of our “present age” that honestly scares me more than words can say. Constant Facebook rants and Instagram wars reveal the tension that holds our community in an iron fist. While politicians argue their agendas and point out arbitrary statistics, social media holds a mirror up to the truth of today’s society, one of systematic and deep-rooted prejudice. The picture reflected in the looking-glass of social media depicts a frightened nation and a censored voice. While the leaders of our country are not burning books and destroying art as the Nazis did, they are essentially ignoring our outrage and our pain, allowing racism and discrimination to continue mostly unchecked.
Something must change. It is time to strip away the filters and lenses we see each other through, leaving a blank slate and a clean image reflected in the mirror. Stephanie Barron, senior curator of modern art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, said of the Nazi’s crusade against the modern and avant-garde that “collectively, the works of art and the pieced-together fragments of history remind us that art may be enjoyed or abhorred but it is a force whose potency should never be underestimated”. While the Nazis used art as a weapon during World War II, they were unable to perceive art as a force in and of itself. Therefore, while the Nazis were able to take hold of the cultural mainstream for a short time, they neglected to consider the perseverance of cultural ideologies, both through adversity as well as time. Similarly, our voices must persist, must become more powerful than the ingrained racism of our society. We have a power that should not be underestimated.
The Holocaust was almost eighty years ago, and in the present, these eighty years have only added to the history and influence of discrimination that we must fight against. Social media, while powerful, does not have the same authenticity and does not carry the same amount of emotional expression that is inherent to art, music, and literature. Social media can be utilized for hate speech and censorship, as well as for advocation and civil disobedience. But we face systematic prejudice, discrimination which is only reflected by social media because we allow it to infiltrate our experiences of one another face to face. We must never forget our history of suffering, or our present of anguish. We must learn from the mistakes and successes of our ancestors and realize that we all come from the same place and we all want the same things. At the core of everything, we all want to feel safe, we all want to be loved, and until the voice of those in pain is heard and amplified, we will never live in a country of equality or security.
