Glowing

A few months ago I read an article about a music video that Tyler The Creator directed for an anonymous artist, the song and video are titled “Glowing." To me the video is beautiful but it has a very powerful indirect message. The video features a love story from childhood through old age. Although this is the focus of the video there is an old television set that appears in different scenes with videos as well as images of poverty and disaster in the mist of the love story that is occurring simultaneously. The video ultimately tries to present the neglect and ignorance towards poverty issues.  I returned to this video today because I sensed it has a lot of connection to the ideas in Talwalker and Katz’s essays. Talwalker focuses on the spark in college students from the Global North seeking to volunteer in places with poverty issues. Many of us see powerful images of poverty and are immediately gain a “philanthropic impulse” like she mentions. Personally, when I see poverty with my own eyes or even in images I have a “philanthropic impulse.” The music video also can be tied to the other end of the spectrum and to the idea that upper class individuals have a lesser sense of giving. The love story presents two individuals oblivious to the poverty and disaster going on around them. Since the essay mentions that the upper class take less part in prosocial behavior this can be represented in the video with the blind love of the individuals, not because of affluence but because of unawareness of feeling connected with others like lower classes do. Katz’s “What Kind of a Problem is Poverty” can also be connected the “Glowing” music video particularly to the cause of poverty that is places. Although this is not delving into the deeper-rooted problems of poverty, before being able to do that it is important that poverty is visible. The music video is a method to end the invisibly of “territories of poverty.” Willful ignorance as Katz describes is a reason as to why poverty remains invisible. Even though this video is exposing the problems of poverty it is linking it to the lack of its recognition. To me, this music video can spark a lot of thoughts relating to the approaches in which we discuss poverty. It can be either a tool of action or a representation of neglect.