Seen and Unseen was a great explanation of what I’d call the ‘received view’ of how social media (particularly cell phone footage that goes viral) shapes social justice movements: that the footage just speaks for itself. The facticity defies the usual narrative, generates a new idea, and even a whole Black Lives Matter movement.

I just happened to read it in conjunction with another book on a similar topic that I found more compelling, Recognizing the Stranger by Isabella Hammad, which had this Edward Said quote at its heart:
👉 “Facts do not at all speak for themselves, but require a socially acceptable narrative to absorb, sustain and circulate them.”

There’s a weird moment in Seen and Unseen: the authors try to explain how one viral and incriminatingly racist video was released by the murderer/retired cop’s own defense lawyer. If video speaks for itself, how did the lawyer not see how horrible it was? They suggested that the lawyer’s eyeballs, “have ‘muscle memory’”—years of racism blinding them, literally. However, I do think Hammad had a better explanation of how this situation could have happened.

Still, I appreciated all the background this book gave.