Kony 2012 scandal irrelevant to the cause
Two weeks ago, Invisible Children co-founder Jason Russell moved millions of people with his video detailing the horror wreaked in Uganda by warlord Joseph Kony.
Jonathan Zhang | Daily Trojan
As support for Kony 2012 reached unprecedented levels, Russell rocked the nation yet again. This time, however, it was not quite so inspiring.
Though being detained by San Diego police for alleged public masturbation does not make Russell as despicable a character as Kony, it has certainly damaged the carefully constructed image of activist, community leader and family man he put forth in his documentary. The documentary told the story of Russell’s personal experiences in Uganda and explained the problem of child soldiers through a conversation with his young son.
By tying his organization’s cause to his personal life, Russell took a big risk. Viewers linked Russell directly with the Kony 2012 campaign, as well as the rest of Invisible Children’s work. Though this personal touch allowed the video to affect audiences more deeply than a mere fact-based documentary ever could, it also caused viewers to hold Russell to a higher standard — a standard he has failed abysmally to meet.
And though he might not be fit to run a campaign — let alone direct an organization — Russell’s cause should not be abandoned or deemed unworthy.
Everyone who has watched the Kony 2012 video now associates the cause at least somewhat with Russell’s personal life. And now that he has so publicly and obscenely made a mess of the latter, people are hesitant to support the cause at all. Instead of rousing people to action in the name of social justice, Russell’s name now calls to mind only embarrassment and instability.
Russell’s intimate connection with the film could also shed some light on the cause of his apparent mental breakdown. His wife told reporters Friday that, while attention on the video was “great for raising awareness about Joseph Kony, it also brought a lot of attention to Jason and, because of how personal the film is, many of the attacks against it were also very personal, and Jason took them very hard.”
Her statement might not make the episode easier to stomach, but it is an important reminder that Russell did not behave with malicious intent.
Both Invisible Children and the public have a vital role to play in the aftermath of Russell’s detention, which is to disassociate Russell’s personal issues from the issue at large: Joseph Kony continues to perpetrate gross atrocities on the people of multiple African nations, including Uganda and the Congo.
No person originally galvanized by Kony 2012 should back out of the Kony awareness movement just because of Russell’s actions. Should our confidence in Invisible Children decrease? Naturally. Facts, however, remain facts. Kony, as confirmed by the International Criminal Court and countless other international and humanitarian groups, was destroying lives long before the police found Russell running around in his underwear and pounding the sidewalk with his fists.
Supporters don’t need to cater to Russell, or his organization, to stop Kony. Entities such as the United Nations, Amnesty International and the Enough Project all offer the necessary advocacy and educational tools.
We should not forget that, regardless of what happened afterward, Invisible Children accomplished one of its central missions: to spread the word about the evil done by Kony. Now that we have the word, what are we doing about it?
Forget Russell. Forget Invisible Children if you feel so inclined. But that’s still no excuse not to answer the question.
Francesca Bessey is a freshman majoring in narrative studies.
People said it was a scam on his video on youtube.com
I was skeptical at first but this reinforces the fact that it is.
Nice article. Let’s hope the behavior of Russell and the highly questionable integrity of Invisible Children doesn’t cause people to simply sleep on this issue.
Class of ’67 here.
Might it be you who are narrowing the question to a yes or no response?
This post-movie psychotic behavior of Russell’s, replete with his stripping down to total exposure, to wildly animated, irrational acts and words which was followed by explanations, excuses, drug inducement charges and denials, highly professional damage-control PR-advisor-crafted vague phraseologies, and a plethora of exposures of inaccurate facts within the video by Invisible Children, all the way to a denial of accuracy by the Prime Minister of Uganda are a cornucopia of thought provoking insights and challenging and shocking ideas.
Those challenging ideas are what USC prides itself on. Excellence in Education. Excellence in seizing on the many new ideas as the bases for intellectually stimulating, intellectually challenging thought.
What a rare learning opportunity. As a first year student, this is a hens tooth moment when you can see what was meant by “the media is the message”, when you can see the power of politics, of biases at work, of news and opinion writers tattooed by their prior utterances. What an enriching intellectual moment. Lies, intentional, consequential to misrepresentation, mistakes, innocent and in service to a political agenda, and the consequence of inadequate, possibly incompetent research, and hastily drawn conclusions are around this topic, like the Rose Garden’s hundreds of varieties just across the street from Campus.
Again, might you be narrowing the questions a bit hastily?
Thanks for the article as it shows you’ve worked the topic. I’d just like to ask you to step back, up to the 40,000 foot level, and look at all the pieces to this situation which imo demands broad, nearly unframed thinking because what you and I, and so many millions have just experienced, exposure to a very inaccurate, biased political video supporting what each decent human being wants, non-violence and justice, and further exposure to a public vetting of the facts and the conclusions, all strong influences on our innocence and ignorance about not just Kony but sea of additional facts and factors.
As a USC undergrad, it’s my my hope that you will reflect on this reaction to your editorial and as an outstanding student stretch to become much more empowered, via the excellent faculty and classmates, to further evolve to be one of those who can be pointed to as a graduate who drew from her experience at USC the rich veins of educational and intellectual excellence, with an exceptionally probed and refined capacity to analyze critically and multifactedly, and in turn be a valued member of American society.