Frosty's Flava Magazine AUG-SEP- 2019 URBAN FILM FESTIVAL EDITION | Page 8

IT’S SUBTLE TOO
By: Emeritus Brandt Edwards
The boiling frog is a fable describing
the amphibian being slowly boiled
alive. The premise is that if a frog is
put suddenly into boiling water, it
will jump out, but… if placed in tepid
water which is then brought to a boil
slowly, it will not perceive the danger
and will be cooked to death.
T
HE story is often used as a metaphor for
the inability or unwillingness of people
to react to or be aware of sinister threats
that arise gradually rather than suddenly.
Racism involves one group having the power
to carry out systemic discrimination through
the institutional policies and practices of the
society and by shaping the cultural beliefs
and values that support those racist policies
and practices.
See WE think of racism in terms of someone
yelling out the word “NIGGER” when they’re
agitated or trying to demoralize an individual’s
spirit; unwarranted stops by law enforcement
on the basis of “suspicious” behavior;
disproportionate sentencing by the criminal
justice system despite suspects being arrested
for similar offenses and having the same prior
record; or being followed in a retailer under
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the premise of being unable to afford the
merchandise being sold.
Yet it’s covert in how it maneuvers about
society. It changes the appearance of historical
figures by bleaching their skin and/or
straightening their hair.
Alters history by calling those brought to the
colonies via the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
“workers” assisting with the revitalization of
agricultural plantations in textbooks given to
students in Texas.
The continued existence of sundown towns
throughout the winding roads and hilly plains
of this republic.
It’s the mother who transports their child
to an adjacent school district to attain a
better education only to be punished with
incarceration.
Or a former Richard Nixon aide, John
Ehrlichman, admitting that the so-called “War
on Drugs” was the war on YOU.
Where in Butler County, Alabama, the area
is invested with hookworms and has been
declared by the UN (United Nations) to have
the worst poverty in the developed. world; a
county which is 73.5% melanated; and in Lake
Providence, Louisiana (East Carroll Parish), the
richest 5% in the parish earn $611,000 per year
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