Reaching out
By Brandon Astor Jones
"There is a basic principle that distinguishes a hot medium like radio from a cool one like the telephone, or a hot medium like the movie from a cool one like TV ... Hot media are ... low in participation, and cool media are high in participation or completion by the audience." — Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media.
For most of September, I was on trial for my life. While court was not in session, I spent much of my time locked away in the tiny cubicle situated less than three metres from Judge Ken Nix's padded seat on the bench. More often than not, I was being watched by three deputies. From time to time, those deputies engaged in idle chitchat among themselves.
I sat quietly and listened as their discussions ranged from the daily routines of their jobs to movies. Eventually the film Full Metal Jacket was mentioned. Deputies Felker and Murphy listened while Easterly excitedly went on at some length in praise of the film's realistic combat scenes. He concluded by saying, "That's a movie you can keep on watchin' over and over".
I saw the film several years ago; once was more than enough. As deputy Easterly said, it does have very violent and graphic fire fight scenes, but those are not what stuck in my memory.
One week later, I was being escorted, via the elevator, by deputies Easterly, Murphy and another man. I broke the ascending silence of the enclosure when I asked Easterly, "You really enjoyed Full Metal Jacket, huh?"
"Ah man, yeah!", he said excitedly.
"How many times did you see it?", I asked.
"At least three times", he replied.
As the door slid open I asked, "What do you remember most about it?"
"The fire fights", he said. The tone of his voice began to change slightly to a less excited level at that point.
As we left the elevator and headed for the tiny cubicle, I asked Easterly what he thought of the so-called "joke" in which one soldier asked, "How do you get five black guys to stop raping a white woman?" Of course, the other soldier had no clue, so the first soldier answered his own question: "Throw 'em a basketball".
Deputy Easterly was momentarily speechless. As he looked off into space his face and neck became ripe tomato-red; he then said, "I don't remember that".
His answer and demeanour did not surprise me. It was then that I said, "That's what I remember most about the movie: its racist content, throughout". I said those words in a soft and civil tone in the hope that he would really hear me.
Feeling very alone, since I was the only black man in the corridor with them, I was surprised to hear deputy Murphy — in what was clearly a sympathetic tone of support for what I was trying to do — say, "Yeah, that is sure in it".
They took the waist chain, handcuffs and leg irons off me and locked me in the tiny cubicle once again. I sat down and pondered the brief dialogue that had taken place.
In the Atlanta Journal/ Atlanta Constitution's September 30 issue, I read about a report on the sorry state of race relations in the United States.
Regina M. Roberts' article reports, "'Bridging the Racial Divide: A Report of Interracial Dialogue in America', found that because black people and white people respond to media images of 'black rage' as a barometer of race relations, a majority of those interviewed rated improving dialogue between both groups a 'top priority'".
I agree. One of the authors of that report said that better race relations have to "start with human beings reaching out to each other across ... racial and ethnic lines". I wonder if deputy Easterly knew that, in my own less than subtle way, I was reaching out.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G2-57, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA. Australians Against Executions is raising funds to pay for a lawyer for Brandon's appeal against his sentence. If you can help, please make cheques payable to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account and post to 10 Palara Place, Dee Why NSW 2099. Donations to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account may also be made at any Commonwealth Bank, account No. 2127 1003 7638.]