A mind shattering experience for colleges, universities, high schools, organizations and conventionsShown in 311 American colleges for packed audiences. Student activities often spend thousands of dollars to bring famous speakers to campus - only to find 50-100 students show up.... ......American Pictures is known for standing room only crowds. Even at the tenth show at Harvard 700 were present. At the third show in U.C. Davis 2000 came. Students who miss it often drive hundreds of miles to see it on other campuses. No program today so visually and "with so lasting impact" depicts the worsening minority crisis of America. An experiment in oppression The show reveals the psychological costs of racism on both the black and the white mind. Yet it is not only a "show" about the victims of racism, but also an experiment in oppression. The technique of the show is to incessantly bombard the audience with a one-sided view from the position of the black underclass, a view in sharp contrast to the Horato Alger myth. There is no opportunity for rationalization or justification. A form of oppression ensues which gradually breaks down the defenses of the audience. It effectively creates a momentary role reversal letting the astonished students actually experience the emotions black people often suffer in everyday white society. This opens the way for whites to begin to identify with and understand black reactions.
The welfare state.....or the lack of it An important thrust both in the show and discussion groups concerns institutionalized poverty, fear and insecurity. As an outsider having grown up in a European welfare state Jacob Holdt challenges established American thought patterns by demonstrating the enormous financial and human costs of life without cradle-to-grave security. Despite the fact that the countries with the greatest economic equality - such as Denmark, Sweden and Japan - have achieved the highest growth rates during this entire century, American thinking is permeated with notions of the capitalist welfare state "destroying people's incentive," giving "hand outs from above" or even leading to suicide. In the search for solutions
it is vital that students at least are informed about alternatives. Also
business, medical and law schools have consequently found it important
to challenge their students with the show. Copyright © 1997 AMERICAN PICTURES; All rights reserved. |
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