A Music Video Can Say a Thousand (Misinterpreted) Words

John Mellencamp's social activism has not had the reaction he likely hoped it would. His new song about the recent events in the town of Jena, Louisiana and the corresponding music video were meant to tell the story of a the town's tragedy, when nooses were hung from a big oak tree outside Jena High School and a black freshman asked whether black students could sit under it. A white student was beaten unconscious three months later, in December, and five black students have been charged with outrageous crimes.

However genuine his intentions though, Mellencamp's song has not been perceived positively by the town's mayor, Murphy R. McMillin. He does not approve of the juxtaposition of the song's lyrics with the images in the music video, which are primarily representative of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. In response to the video McMillin said, "To put the incident in Jena in the same league as those who were murdered in the 1960s cheapens their sacrifice and insults their memory." He also commented on the misrepresentation of the town of Jena by the media, who have concentrated on the recent alarming incident of racism and all but ignored the positive aspects of the town and how it has come together to support each other in spite of the crisis.

That was not the point of the song, however. "The song is not written as an indictment of the people of Jena but, rather, as a condemnation of racism," says a statement on Mellencamp's website. It seems that the song itself could have had the desired effect had it not been paired with a video of such strong images as Martin Luther King speaking, members of the Ku Klux Klan, and civil rights marches that still have an impact today. This incident is a good example of how words by themselves can have one meaning and that meaning can change drastically when paired with certain images. Unfortunately the attention being paid to the controversy over the song would be much better served if paid to the pressing issue of racism itself.

source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/06/jena.six.mellencamp.ap/index.html