Viral Mannequin Challenge Video Spotlights Police Brutality

The explosively popular #MannequinChallenge has gotten a powerful new entry spotlighting police brutality and the lives lost because of it, such as Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, and Alton Sterling.

Earning over one million views on Facebook, the video, titled #BlackandBlue, was directed by actor, writer, and director Simone Shepherd. The video panned through different scenes depicting notable incidents of mostly police violence against African-Americans, as well as scene of historical significance and a demonstration.

The video depicts a hooded teen dressed as Trayvon Martin, complete with a packet of Skittles and an Arizona. It also shows someone dressed as a kneeling Colin Kaepernick, as well as people re-enacting the scenarios around Bland, Castile, and Sterling, before ending on a Black Lives Matter demonstration. Unlike a typical mannequin challenge, #BlackandBlue wasn’t scored to “Black Beatles,” but instead featured audio related to issues of police violence and racial justice. There was a clip of George Zimmerman talking to police before he shot and killed Martin, audio from Sandra Bland’s roadside arrest, and even an excerpt from a Malcolm X speech.

The video serves to promote an upcoming feature film titled Black in Blue. According to a fundraising campaign for the film: “The creators of "Black in Blue," will take you inside the perspective of lives, both in front and behind the trigger.”