How Virtual Reality Helps Us Understand the Reality of Black Lives

As I wrote about in Part 1 of this column the recent events of the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests has motivated introspection around racism bias and preconceived notions about the quototherquot I am sure it has done the same to many of you On the path of that selfexploration I turned to the virtual world to seek out tools that might help me through this processAt first you wouldn39t think that a virtual movie theater avatarbased virtual social environment would be the place to gain enlightenment on the topic Bigscreen is a bit of a cross between Linden Lab39s Second Life and the failed experiment that was PlayStation Home Like PlayStation Home everyone who participates in Bigscreen gets their own virtual living room You can invite friends and strangers in for discussions or viewing parties You can stream the preselected content like movies and live TV through a partnership with PlutoTV a division of ViacomCBS Your room can be private or open to the public Currently occupancy in each room maxes out at around twelve participants Each participant is represented by an avatar Bigscreen also has large movietheater auditoriums where you can watch trailers movies or live events eat virtual popcorn drink virtual softdrinks and even toss virtual tomatoes at the screen or slightly annoyingly at other people in the auditorium Within the lobbies of these theaters you can meet and engage with people from all over the world I39ve actually had great conversations with people from across Europe the Middle East and South American as to how they have been handling the pandemic but that39s for a different articleThe week that the protests following George Floyd39s murder began I entered a room labeled quotpoliticsquot Two of the participants in the room were African Americans One described his life living in a nice condo near the University of Chicago He has a good job Is well educated Yet he still fears for his life every time he leaves his apartment and goes out for a drive Another participant happened to be a police officer from Louisville KY The officer condemned the action of the police involved in the Floyd case and spoke about the protests in Louisville that had until that point been peaceful He did point out that in a nearby town there had been some violence but driven by a group of protestors that had come in from New YorkOther attendees ran the gamut from educated and liberal to less so each with their own opinion The discourse was real honest eyeopening for all and most of all respectful The other insight I can share is that with the immersive environment and the powerful stories that were being told to an increasing degree as the conversations deepened I forgot that I was wearing a VR headset and that I and the others were avatars The experience was humanTraveling While Black was produced in 2019 by Felix ampamp Paul Studios an Emmy award winning immersive production house based in Montreal in collaboration with Oculus NY Times OpDocs and Traveling While Black Inc It was named one of the top six most significant VR works of 2019 at Sundance by top trend blog CoolHunting It is an immersive experience that is available within the Felix ampamp Paul app across several VR headsets In my case I was using the Oculus QuestBen39s Chili Bowl diner pictured at top was added to the Negro Motorist Green Book a guide for African American through the 1960s whose purpose was to give Black travelers a way to understand where they were welcome to eat and sleep in America in 1958 The diner is still in business todayI put on my Oculus Quest launch the Traveling While Black app and within seconds I am listening to stories of segregation and discrimination directly from those who experienced it then and continue to experience it nowVirginia Ali the founder of Ben39s Chili Bowl explains in a conversation to Therrell Smith 101 years young former ballerina how Ben39s became a safehaven and refuge to the community quotWe invited the community in and we started with the neighborhood young men that thought this was home for them There were always 810 of them that sat in that corner all from different walks of life from the community quotsays SmithSuddenly I am in a booth at the diner sitting alongside a small group of friends who chronicle their stories of racial discrimination experiences of restricted movement and bias that Black men and women have experienced over the decades and still experience today One woman saying quotThey treat dogs better than they treated us back thenquot I feel so close in the booth that I move to reposition my arm just to make sure that I do not bump into anyone It is a moving and intimate experience one that only the medium of virtual reality can produce You are in the moment You are a direct witness to the testimony of the wrongedAs we continue to mourn the wrongful death of George Floyd it was heartbreaking to hear the testimony of Samaria Rice who recounted the death of her 12yearold son Tamir Rice in Cleveland Tamir was playing with a toy gun and was killed by the police in November 2014 While this case is most definitely different and more nuanced than George Floyd39s the callousness shown to Samaria when she arrived on the scene her pain her grief is soulwrenching What strikes me is that Traveling While Black was released in 2019 Its stories and testimonies go back decades but unfortunately are still being added to todayI have heard throughout these weeks that George Floyd was not a martyr but a catalyst For me that could not be truer As a Jew of Hispanic descent who has experienced his fair share of bias and passive and sometimes less than passive antiSemitism in an industry that I love I am recommitting myself to ensuring that our industry does better both internally and to support the overall business efforts to achieve a more diverse view Will you join meBut Wait That39s Not AllIt cannot be all The advertising industry has been embarking on diversity initiatives for over a decade Jack Myers has invested a good portion of his career to engage the marketing industry in the diversity conversation with the Advancing Diversity council and Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors to encourage action Some of marketing39s biggest and brightest participate and the events of the past week will no doubt accelerate their effortsThere is no doubt that the employees of the agencies have become more diverse However these positions are usually in peripheral roles rarely on center stage IT Accounting HR or Administrative There are a few cases where employees in these roles move into a media creative or account position Few casesI have been fortunate to work with a diverse group of talent throughout my career but I have never worked for one It is time for the ad industry to make a change and get diversity into the CSuite And by diversity I don39t just mean someone with a diverse background that could quotpassquot as nondiverse It is time for the CSuite to resemble the Main StreetIt starts with education and it starts with college We need an industrywide investment and effort supported by the 4As IAB and ANA to commit to creating and active participation in a four year curriculum for 21st Century advertising From fundamentals to programmatic to creative to immersive storytelling to account management in the digital age we need the top leaders across all aspects of the industry to commit both their time and the financial resources to create a program of opportunity that will prepare and empower minority groups for success in the Advertising Media and Marketing industriesPeace BlackLivesMatterClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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How Virtual Reality Helps Us Understand the Reality of Black Lives

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Jeff Minsky

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