To put into perspective the dire need to cease police brutality in black and brown communities, a new PSA made its way to the Internet to serve as a meeting ground for discussion.
Titled Against The Wall, the black-and-white reel features prominent activists and entertainers, including Danny Glover, Michael K. Williams, Sydney G. James, Van Jones, and Michael B. Jordan. Pressed up against a wall with their hands by their heads, audio of police shootings that have catalyzed the Black Lives Matter movement, plus news coverage of those deaths play as the participators stare morosely into the camera.
The visual also features one of the most stirring lines uttered by an actual law enforcement official, that coming from officer Nakia Jones who went viral in July for her video condemning racist police tactics.
“If you are white and you’re working in a black community and you are racist, you need to be ashamed of yourself,” Jones professes.
Against The Wall was directed by Christopher Renz and Gerard Bush, the latter issuing a statement, per Mashable, on the meaning behind the video.
“We thought it would prove powerful to place these celebrated people in the same positions that too many within the black community face — being forced against the wall, hands up, on the ground and eventually shot dead by police,” Bush said. “You can see and feel the same pain, bewilderment, fear, humiliation in the faces of these celebrated people, as you could imagine would have been on the faces of the victims themselves.”
In partnership with Sankofa.org, which was founded by legendary activist, Harry Belafonte, the 89-year-old shared that through this PSA, “We are shining a light and calling out to all to take a look, listen and feel within your heart to take action,” he said.
View the full PSA below.