The Mannequin Challenge usually shows people acting out an outrageous scene in good fun — a gymnastics team posing mid-tumble, passengers on a plane stopping mid-flight, a comedian pausing during an intense workout — but this one is a lot more serious.
A new Mannequin Challenge orchestrated by Black in Blue Film plays out scenes of police shootings and brutality. It was directed by comedian and YouTube personality Simone Shepherd, who said the post has been removed from Facebook but that she will “just keep reposting it.”
It starts with intensity: We hear a police officer say, “I told him to get his hands up!” We see a white police officer pointing his gun into a car where a black man is sitting next to his girlfriend — with all of the actors frozen in place. It is a recreation of the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, whose death in July brought nationwide outrage.
The rest of the challenge tells the stories of Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, and Trayvon Martin, then shifts to show Black Lives Matter protesters. We hear Malcolm X’s famous Organization of Afro-American Unity Founding Rally speech from 1964. Colin Kaepernick taking a knee also makes an appearance.
The video ends to the sound of a heart monitor going dead.
Instead of the usual Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles” ft. Gucci Mane song playing in the background, the video uses audio specific to each story.
Black in Blue Film, a start-up production company, says it seeks to provide the “perspective of lives, both in front and behind the trigger.” Torrei Hart is also credited with a role in the challenge.
Watch the video above.