LENS: CREATE NOT HATE
Non-profit organisation, Create Not Hate, has developed a hard hatting film providing a platform for young people to share their first-hand experiences of racism with the police. The video, which was planned to be a partnership with the Metropolitan police, aims to facilitate an open and progressive discussion to implement change.
Create Not Hate aims to tackle systematic racism and help underrepresented young people into the creative industries. This campaign was organised as a joint project between young black people and local Metropolitan police, whereby the two groups would participate in an on-camera discussion to try and implement positive change.
Stop and searches disproportionately affect young people black people across the UK, with black people nine times more likely to face a stop and search than white people. Creative agency, Quiet Storm, produced the video with the aim to distribute it to serving police officers across the UK and encourage empathy training and change in the handling of stop and searches.
The video features a diverse mix of six young people from South London aged between 16-22 bravely talking about their experiences and sharing their views on what needs to be done to improve relations.
Quiet music plays in the background to ensure the focus is on the young people and what they have to say. Emmanuel Areoye, one of the young people featured in the film says, “because as an individual, who is not a criminal, I don’t feel comfortable around police. We’re talking about 16, 17-year-olds getting stopped, not just getting stopped, but getting harassed, manhandled because of speculation that you might have done something because of how you look.”
The video adopts emotive storytelling from first-hand experience with the aim to leave an authentic and lasting impression on the audience. JT, a young person in the film, says, “Basically, they accused me of smoking cannabis and asked if they could search me. I said that’s fine, next thing I know, one of them had swiped my legs and they threw me to the ground. I landed face first. They handcuffed me as one of them was sitting on my back. I was crying. My tooth broke, I had bruising on my face and now I have long-lasting back pain.”
White text then appears on screen explaining how the Metropolitan police failed to show up to filming. Create Not Hate opted to continue shooting for the campaign to ensure the young people had a chance to be heard.
The video launched ahead of the weekend of Notting Hill Carnival which has been cancelled for the second year in a row.
Create Not Hate- We Need To Talk About Stop And Search from Quiet Storm on Vimeo.
