I have spent the last year working for my school’s television program, and have probably had more segments denied than any other student in school history. Among those that were rejected was a segment called sports you only play once, in which my friend and I listed and acted out various dangerous sports (acid chugging contest, blindfolded darts, javelin catch, chainsaw boxing, horseback hang gliding, handstand patty cake, rooftop marco polo, and dying); a segment called America’s future voters, in which my friends and I go-carted down steep hills and used fireworks; and the most recently rejected was a minute long intro in which we wished Tyler Perry a happy birthday and listed out the 22 appearances (most of them films) of Madea, the character that is Tyler Perry in a dress and Wig. Believe me when I say there are others, but I think those three best prove my point. Yes many of the rejections are just purely bad ideas, but there are also cases where there is a fine line on what is acceptable and what is not. The Tyler Perry segment got shut down, because the teacher was afraid it would be taken as racist and that "I was a white guy who was making fun of movies whose demographic was African American, and a man who is associated with black pop culture.¨ I was not upset as I understood his point and that he was the one at risk. I had already gotten him in trouble with a segment last year. It was right before holiday break, and I had edited the last credit scene from The Life of Brian (the one where the people on the cross sing always look on the bright side of life in a large musical number), trimming it down and adding ¨have a nice break¨. Within minutes of the show playing my teacher was asked if he had tenure, because he just played an offensive video of people on the cross right before Christmas.
Exercising editorial judgement is a hard job, and sometimes it is necessary to empathize with both sides. From the student or artist perspective having a piece of worked denied can be awful. It has happened to me, and when you put hard work and creativity into something only to have it rejected it is a demoralizing feeling that everyone has felt at one point or another. But there are cases where it is necessary because the fact is that when it is a segment broadcast through the entire school, you are subjecting everyone to it. It is not like making an inappropiate joke with your friend. Imagine if everyone in the entire school heard all the stories and jokes you told your friends. I do not know about you, but I'm getting slapped, hopefully not arrested. A five minute video of someone shouting racial slurs and praising the KKK, should be censored. There can actually be a positive sense of purpose in censorship, when you protect someone from being hurt or offended, that can be a noble job. It can be that you are sticking up for the little guy. I have gotten mad at someone for making fun of a mentally challenged person and calling them retarded. I am sure that person still insults people like that, but I could never do anything about it. There is not much of a difference between doing that and stopping someone from broadcasting or turning in a piece of work that is insulting, except that with censorship they can stop it before someone is hurt. I think it is worth mentioning that I watch South Park and make bad jokes. I’m not against funny or inappropriate things, I am against insulting and hurting people. In the end censorship is a hard job, especially in school environments. Sometimes things deserve to be censored, sometimes they do not. Sometimes it is the right thing to do, and sometimes it is just what you have to do; sometimes it sucks to be rejected, and sometimes I am just an idiot. I hope you appreciated my perspective on censorship at school.