Alicia Keys Opens Opens The Door Of Present Day Racism

In my opinion, anything Alicia Keys touches turns to gold. When I saw this video, I knew it would be perfect for this class. In the video she addresses a very common issue in the black community; the issue of a black person dating someone not black. This is a commonly thought of notion that white people and black people shouldn't date (not as previlant in the present, but its definetly still out there) and it really hits home for me because alot of my friends are black, and even me just being their friend has stirred up drama with certain people. But also my boyfriend Kevin was black, and we were really serious and had a strong relationship and could back that up to anybody that wanted to question it so our races shouldn't make any difference in the judgements made on our relationship. But the concept I will be talking about in this blog was a bit different than the video, because his family and friends really had no problem with me being white at all they took me in as one if I'd known them for years; but there were a few people that either met him or saw a picture of him and said things like "wow, you're dating a black guy?!" or "he's black? never would've thought I'd see you with a black guy" I really don't understand why interracial dating is seen as such a taboo topic and surprising concept when its seen in the real world.

The thing that struck me in particular about this video is the jump between all the different time periods throughout the video. I've never really seen that in a music video, and if there have been they've been subtle and not a big potion of the theme of the music video. All the different fashions, hair styles, cars, settings that age the look of the images themselves (black and white or tinting), etc make it such an interesting and powerful video linking the past with the present.

This video embraces that racism from back in the day is still alive today and gives the idea that its not any different than back then. By switching the time period in nearly each scene with all the same faces without aging them gives the viewer the ability to relate to the characters. The director basically tricks the viewer into opening their eyes and seeing this as a real life thing, not just something studied in history. It shows us the same people with their hair, fashion, and general settings comletely changed from what we see and know in our daily lives and then switch it after making a point in the past to the present day in the same setting but with present day technology, fashion, hair styles, etc which is the key used to open the door of active racism in the present day.

This video is very sybolic to me and really speaks to me because as I said before I've basically lived this, and even though the racist behaviors of people seemingly have deminished the sad truth is they haven't.

*video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhuGQUZJot8