*Whatever this guy’s motivation is/was, he’s getting plenty of attention for it. Lot’s of it. At only 19-years of age, we hope he handle the growing backlash.
He’s a rapper who goes by the name of XXXTentacion. He’s under fire because he released a video featuring a young white boy being lynched on a stage as an African-American boy looks on.
His video, “Look At Me!,” was posted on Tuesday. It features imagery depicting police brutality, violent protests, and the Florida-based rapper placing a white child’s head in a noose on stage in front of a crowded theater and then hoisting him up into the air.
The child’s feet are shown dangling and twitching and then they suddenly stop.
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the casting director of the video, LaShawnna Stanley, said that finding parents who would allow their child to be hanged on stage was a challenge. Duh! But, they obviously found the parents who said yes.
“We had to delay the video because the mom that originally agreed and said okay but when she got there she didn’t feel comfortable. We delayed for a week,” said Stanley.
“I called a lot of parents. It was a direct booking. No one was okay with their white child getting lynched,” Stanley said. “With all the racial tension in the world right out they were nervous.”
Stanley said the mother who finally agreed “was serious about acting and the message. The mother of the son is very serious about acting. She’s a stage mom. She has three sons and takes them to LA to audition. She understood the vision.”
So what’s going on in the video? What’s the vision? Well, according to Stanley, it’s that the “little white boy and black boy show innocence,” and that society has become desensitized seeing black men hung and shot, but the imagery of a white child being hung is shocking.
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Ms. Stanley said that XXXTentacion made sure to make both children feel comfortable on set.
“XXX was very lovely to the kids and hugging,” she said.
Naturally, not everyone on social media agreed.
A Twitter user questioned the use of the child in the video.
“I’m not sure if hanging a child in a music video is right, regardless of the message you send.”
A fellow follower agreed the video was going too far.
yea thats cool but why “hang” a white kid like wtf he’s talking about slavery like it was 1800 it doesn’t exist anymore
— Maxxwell ちゃん (@LilThraxxxo) September 12, 2017
Another chimed in, “so x is saying to be ‘equal’ we must do what is being done? (Killing white people) which is creating more hate?”
But some argued the video’s message was powerful.
One YouTuber mentioned in the comments below the video that the shock value of the video was causing viewers to miss this point.
“THIS ISNT ANTI WHITE!!! When he hung the white boy I think he was trying to show it from a different perspective to show what would it be like if the roles were switched.”
Another wrote: “My summary and take away from this: Murder is murder as he said is awful. No matter what your cause is death is not something you should be able to inflict. If you do have a supremacist attitude realize that it is because you fear the opposition and that’s why you are weak. For the youth is impressionable and will repeat their environment.”
The bottom line: The video has been viewed over 5 million times on YouTube.
source: Fox News
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