hi my name is Tony Weaver jr. and Here I
am October 31st 1996 as you can see I’ve
always looked good in capes it’s normal
for kids to want to dress up for
Halloween but for me things went a
little bit further I like to dress up
all the time and it’s not something that
I grew out of as I got older I’ve always
found solace in the idea of heroes an
extraordinary person with the power to
create change growing up addresses these
heroes because they made me feel
powerful like I could create that change
myself but during my childhood there was
always something missing none of them
look like me my skin was too dark my
hair was the wrong texture it seemed
like no matter how many expensive
costumes or a hair dye I bought I’d
never be quite reitman that feeling of
not being quite right was something that
stuck with me as well I was the weird
kid I didn’t want to be weird I wanted
to be cool like ash but it was really
hard for me to make friends I wanted to
be strong like that man but I was
bullied constantly I wanted to be smart
like Robin but when I submitted my
writing assignments I get notes back
from my teacher that said did you write
this speak to me after class plagiarism
is wrong even though I dress up as these
characters and I want it to be powerful
I felt powerless and as a teenager I
attempted suicide spoiler alert I got
better and graduated salutatorian in my
high school class and went to Elon
University where
I went to Elon University and studied
acting with the intention of being the
next Denzel Washington and beating
Michael B Jordan however during my
freshman year I ran into something that
put me on a different path as a part of
one of my classes I volunteer at a local
elementary school where I mentored an
african-american fourth grader named
Nazir every week I’d have an hour to
spend with him I was meant to be a
friendly face that wasn’t a teacher for
him to talk for him to talk to about any
issues that he was having
however he really just wanted to talk to
me about superheroes how cool he thought
they were and how he wanted to be like
them it’s not familiar to anybody
Halloween was coming up and when I asked
him if he will be dressing at his
favorite hero he told me I can’t because
I don’t look like him
I’m gonna dress his CJ from Grand Theft
Auto the same child that wanted to be a
hero that wanted to create change I felt
like the only person he could beat was
the main character of a video game where
you kill people steal things and run
away from police
my experience with Nazir brought light
to a terrifying thought if I got to
spend an hour a week with him and he was
still having these problems what about
the kids that I didn’t get to talk to
what about the kids that didn’t have
anybody to talk to so I put my dreams of
beating Michael B Jordan to the side and
said I need to do research on media
representation and the way it affects
the way we view ourselves and what I
found during my research was staggering
the average American engages with media
content over 10 and a half hours a day
and over 95 percent of American
households have at least one television
media misrepresentation has been linked
to people of color receiving harsher
sentencing from judges less attention
from doctors and a higher likelihood of
being shot by police it’s also been
linked to increases in violence against
women members of the LGBTQ community and
people of Islamic faith what I found was
that for the kids like me the minorities
the outliers the weirdos there was a
need for positive representation to show
them who they could be as I developed a
solution to that this happened it’s
anybody familiar with this movie and I
heard this movie before maybe maybe
possibly over 1 billion dollars at the
box office
amazing representation record-breaking
sales and a star-studded cast led by
what made black panther powerful was the
fact that it brought representation to
the mainstage but what was even more
powerful than the film was what happened
afterwards teachers creating black
panther lesson plans to teach their
students about science and technology
what kinda themed conventions and
community events around agency and
empowerment kids dressing up as heroes
it looked like them the thing that made
Black Panther a cultural phenomenon was
not only that showed us how powerful
representation could be but that it
awakened us to the power to create that
representation ourselves with the
intention of using the power of media to
awaken the power and others I started
weird enough productions where we tell
stories that embraced all things weird
complex and peculiar with hopes of
helping people learn that they can
change the world part of how we do that
is with these cool folks the uncommons a
new group of Heroes focused on showing a
new perspective and showing anybody that
no matter who they are they can be a
hero the representation is important but
we don’t stop there
with every piece of content that we
create we partner it with a lesson plan
that teachers can use to teach their
students media literacy how to combat
fake news how to identify media bias and
how to use media to create change in
their communities in communications
there’s something called the one-way
communication model where a sender uses
a channel to articulate a message to an
audience that’s usually what we’re
accustomed to a billboard tells you to
buy a pair of shoes you see an
advertisement telling you that this
cream will give you lighter skin or an
energy
that tells you you get abs like Michael
B Jordan and there’s really not much we
can do about it but in the last decade
that’s changed we’ve shifted to a two
way communication model where just like
people send messages to us we can send a
message back with our phones with social
media with our tablets technology has
given us the ability to tell our own
stories the same infrastructure that’s
been used to to see people for political
gain exploiting securities to sell
products and peddle stereotypes for
ratings can now be used to eradicate
injustice at a systemic scale earlier
this year we had the opportunity to
learn exactly what happens when young
people stand up and demand change with
the March for our lives if we were able
to put media literacy education in the
hands of every student in the United
States we could create a movement just
as powerful as a March for our lives but
in every classroom across the country
hyper targeted to issues specific to
that community I’ve always found solace
in the idea of heroes an extraordinary
person with the power to create change
and normally when we think of heroes we
think of Superman flying through the sky
spider-man swinging from webs or Michael
B Jordan just doing whatever he does but
I think that the heroes that we need are
already here I think the power to create
change lies in the hearts of every young
person in this country if we can empower
them to put on their capes whether it’s
a real one like mine or a phone a tablet
a blog a video camera if we can equip
every student in this country to
recognize their power and firmly stand
in it the world’s greatest problems won’t stand a chance thank you
am October 31st 1996 as you can see I’ve
always looked good in capes it’s normal
for kids to want to dress up for
Halloween but for me things went a
little bit further I like to dress up
all the time and it’s not something that
I grew out of as I got older I’ve always
found solace in the idea of heroes an
extraordinary person with the power to
create change growing up addresses these
heroes because they made me feel
powerful like I could create that change
myself but during my childhood there was
always something missing none of them
look like me my skin was too dark my
hair was the wrong texture it seemed
like no matter how many expensive
costumes or a hair dye I bought I’d
never be quite reitman that feeling of
not being quite right was something that
stuck with me as well I was the weird
kid I didn’t want to be weird I wanted
to be cool like ash but it was really
hard for me to make friends I wanted to
be strong like that man but I was
bullied constantly I wanted to be smart
like Robin but when I submitted my
writing assignments I get notes back
from my teacher that said did you write
this speak to me after class plagiarism
is wrong even though I dress up as these
characters and I want it to be powerful
I felt powerless and as a teenager I
attempted suicide spoiler alert I got
better and graduated salutatorian in my
high school class and went to Elon
University where
I went to Elon University and studied
acting with the intention of being the
next Denzel Washington and beating
Michael B Jordan however during my
freshman year I ran into something that
put me on a different path as a part of
one of my classes I volunteer at a local
elementary school where I mentored an
african-american fourth grader named
Nazir every week I’d have an hour to
spend with him I was meant to be a
friendly face that wasn’t a teacher for
him to talk for him to talk to about any
issues that he was having
however he really just wanted to talk to
me about superheroes how cool he thought
they were and how he wanted to be like
them it’s not familiar to anybody
Halloween was coming up and when I asked
him if he will be dressing at his
favorite hero he told me I can’t because
I don’t look like him
I’m gonna dress his CJ from Grand Theft
Auto the same child that wanted to be a
hero that wanted to create change I felt
like the only person he could beat was
the main character of a video game where
you kill people steal things and run
away from police
my experience with Nazir brought light
to a terrifying thought if I got to
spend an hour a week with him and he was
still having these problems what about
the kids that I didn’t get to talk to
what about the kids that didn’t have
anybody to talk to so I put my dreams of
beating Michael B Jordan to the side and
said I need to do research on media
representation and the way it affects
the way we view ourselves and what I
found during my research was staggering
the average American engages with media
content over 10 and a half hours a day
and over 95 percent of American
households have at least one television
media misrepresentation has been linked
to people of color receiving harsher
sentencing from judges less attention
from doctors and a higher likelihood of
being shot by police it’s also been
linked to increases in violence against
women members of the LGBTQ community and
people of Islamic faith what I found was
that for the kids like me the minorities
the outliers the weirdos there was a
need for positive representation to show
them who they could be as I developed a
solution to that this happened it’s
anybody familiar with this movie and I
heard this movie before maybe maybe
possibly over 1 billion dollars at the
box office
amazing representation record-breaking
sales and a star-studded cast led by
what made black panther powerful was the
fact that it brought representation to
the mainstage but what was even more
powerful than the film was what happened
afterwards teachers creating black
panther lesson plans to teach their
students about science and technology
what kinda themed conventions and
community events around agency and
empowerment kids dressing up as heroes
it looked like them the thing that made
Black Panther a cultural phenomenon was
not only that showed us how powerful
representation could be but that it
awakened us to the power to create that
representation ourselves with the
intention of using the power of media to
awaken the power and others I started
weird enough productions where we tell
stories that embraced all things weird
complex and peculiar with hopes of
helping people learn that they can
change the world part of how we do that
is with these cool folks the uncommons a
new group of Heroes focused on showing a
new perspective and showing anybody that
no matter who they are they can be a
hero the representation is important but
we don’t stop there
with every piece of content that we
create we partner it with a lesson plan
that teachers can use to teach their
students media literacy how to combat
fake news how to identify media bias and
how to use media to create change in
their communities in communications
there’s something called the one-way
communication model where a sender uses
a channel to articulate a message to an
audience that’s usually what we’re
accustomed to a billboard tells you to
buy a pair of shoes you see an
advertisement telling you that this
cream will give you lighter skin or an
energy
that tells you you get abs like Michael
B Jordan and there’s really not much we
can do about it but in the last decade
that’s changed we’ve shifted to a two
way communication model where just like
people send messages to us we can send a
message back with our phones with social
media with our tablets technology has
given us the ability to tell our own
stories the same infrastructure that’s
been used to to see people for political
gain exploiting securities to sell
products and peddle stereotypes for
ratings can now be used to eradicate
injustice at a systemic scale earlier
this year we had the opportunity to
learn exactly what happens when young
people stand up and demand change with
the March for our lives if we were able
to put media literacy education in the
hands of every student in the United
States we could create a movement just
as powerful as a March for our lives but
in every classroom across the country
hyper targeted to issues specific to
that community I’ve always found solace
in the idea of heroes an extraordinary
person with the power to create change
and normally when we think of heroes we
think of Superman flying through the sky
spider-man swinging from webs or Michael
B Jordan just doing whatever he does but
I think that the heroes that we need are
already here I think the power to create
change lies in the hearts of every young
person in this country if we can empower
them to put on their capes whether it’s
a real one like mine or a phone a tablet
a blog a video camera if we can equip
every student in this country to
recognize their power and firmly stand
in it the world’s greatest problems won’t stand a chance thank you
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