Justice

The Bullet Bucket Challenge: Why it makes sense

August 26th 2014

By now you or someone you know has completed the ice bucket challenge and raised awareness and money for ALS research. Although it is a great cause, there has been some backlash, mainly due to the unfortunate timing with what happened to Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO. With the ALS challenge, the call to action is clear: 1. Dump water on oneself 2. Raise awareness and funds 3. Rinse (and challenge friends) to repeat. But how do we form a call-to-action around Ferguson and its deeper implications: police brutality, racism, etc.?

A couple days ago, Orlando Jones of the Fox show "Sleepy Hollow" dumped a bucket of bullets (well, shell casings) on himself. Watch below. 

According to Jones' interview with Jessica Roy on Fusion, he "wanted to do what ALS did, co-opt a viral thing and make it [his] own, to talk about the insanity happening in Ferguson and just around the world." Now, I'm not encouraging people to dump buckets of bullets on their heads (it'll hurt more than these ice bucket fails). However, it's worth noting that the ALS challenge offers a straightforward cause/effect solution (ie: give money) whereas the situation in Ferguson is much more complex. Maybe the first step is to think more deeply about racial inequality in America.