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• 1 2013-04-30T18:21:22-07:00 Remix Project: Abigail Fisher vs. the University of Texas 7 plain 2013-05-06T22:31:59-07:00
  In a recent wave of Facebook posts, the curious case of Abigail Fisher filled my newsfeed. I was struck by the many posts with links to an article in the Atlantic Wire, each of which prominently featured the youthful face of the ingénue. After the ninth reposting, I gave in to peer pressure and clicked on the link. The article, “Race Didn’t Cost Abigail Fisher her Spot at the University of Texas,” detailed a court case brought by Abigail Fisher against the University of Texas. Sixty years after the NAACP led a successful case against the infamous “separate but equal” doctrine, conservatives adopted civil rights era arguments against discriminatory treatment to argue that white students were the victims of racial discrimination. Abigail Fisher was their poster child.

  For my remix project, I decided to reinterpret a YouTube video posted by Edward Blum. The 1973 alum of the University of Texas led financing for the case through his non-profit organization. The original video is comprised of a myriad of images, interviews, and sentimental music. Each revolves around the victimization of Fisher. Her denied admission, it argues, was based on no other factor than her race. To her support, the video features testimony by Fisher who claims she both had higher grades and was involved in more activities than the students of color who were admitted. The video explicitly places blame for her rejection on policies that consider race in admissions decision. In a surprising twist of rhetoric, the film makes the case that not only has Fischer been a victim of racial discrimination, but that policies favoring the admission of underrepresented minority students actually harm them the most by undermining their credibility in the eyes of white students and by sending them the message that they needn’t reach the high-standards of “other” (white) students.

  In watching the video, I was disturbed by its attempts to identify with the civil rights movement. In a deceptive slight of hand, Abigail Fisher was likened to the Little Rock 9 or Ruby Bridges, whose efforts to advance school desegregation have been the object of much celebration in recent years. Although invoking ideas of equality, Fisher’s efforts attempt to roll back the advances of this earlier generation. I decided to rework the video to establish a new “way of seeing” (to borrow a term from John Berger). My goal in doing so was to take their use of civil rights rhetoric to the extreme, and in doing so, rupture the narrative of color-blind justice that the original creator invoked.

  My digital argument is meant to invoke the idea of a movie trailer. Specifically, it is designed as a satirical trailer for a documentary film exploring Abigail Fisher as a civil rights hero. My primary source is the original YouTube video posted by Bum, “Abigail Fisher vs. the University of Texas at Austin.” For the remix, I chose short clips to lay out the basic claims of the case: a girl determined to attend the University of Texas is denied admission and, in her belief that it was her race that caused her denial, brought a suit against the university with claims of reverse racism. Like Martin Luther King, she was a girl with a dream. I interlaced the film with data from the Atlantic Wire article that critique Fishers’ claim, including admission figures for the admitted class. Still images underscore the parallels to the civil rights movement that Fisher’s supporters seek to reproduce. For instance, I portray block quotes from Fisher’s supporters as if the endorsement of a film critic.

  Within my digital argument, I include images from the desegregation efforts of the Little Rock 9, who risked attending a white high school in Arkansas following the landmark decision to integrate schools in  Brown vs the Board of Education. My intention is two-fold. First, I attempt to critique the original video's claim that we live in a colorblind society and that it is the concept of color-blind justice which defines our nation. Secondly, I seek to disrupt the idea that Fisher’s efforts can be likened to that of historical efforts to rid the education system of inequality. The violent protests encountered by young students in their attempts to challenge systematic unequal access to high-quality sites of education is nothing like that experienced by Fisher. Although denied admission to the program of her choice, Fisher received provisional acceptance to the University of Texas (which goes unreported in her YouTube video). For dramatic effect, I end the trailer with a short clip of Fisher stating that she wants people to know that she did not take her victimization sitting down. If Rosa Parks is considered “the First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement” for her defiant act onboard a Montgomery city bus, then Fisher very well might be the iconic figure of a conservative movement meant to undermine those gains in a co-optation of the legacy of the civil rights movement. 

  Works Cited

  “Abigail Fisher vs University of Texas at Austin,” September 4, 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXSpx9PZZj4

  “Honoring MLK Day,” The Official Blog of Park West Gallery, January 18, 2010.

  Nikole Hannah-Jones, “Race Didn’t Cost Abigail Fisher Her Spot at the University of Texas,” Atlantic Wire, March 18, 2013.

  Vaughn Wallace, “Brave Hearts: Remembering the Little Rock Nine, 1957,” Life Magazine.