We will be amplifying history with the aim to move viewers beyond reaction to action using the I-See-U Socio-Emotional Framework.
Timing totals: 10, 76, 17, 22, 14= 139 seconds total
Primal Brain: Starting with a high-emotion, introductory statement, will positively influence the audiences perception of the rest of the video. This is accomplished by boosting the dopamine levels in their primal brain right at the start. Target emotions that can be triggered by things like surprise, shame, anxiousness, confusion, courageousness, cruelty, cynicism, distress, doom, intimidation, idealism, hostility, hopelessness, hopefulness accomplishment, gratefulness, mourning, belonging.
Shirley Chisholm once said “Black male politicians are no different from white male politicians. This ‘woman thing' is so deep.”
Timing:
20 words = 10 seconds
aim: 10-40 words
Knowledgeable Brain: tell the story in a way that provides a visual and iconic image for each of the major events. We will add motion and sound, which together with the images, will inject the story into the viewer's long-term memory which are organized in the hippocampus, but with bits that are located at various places in the cortex where they are associated with sensory experiences and other tangential, previous memories that connect with and provide context.
In her first congressional campaign, her opponent, James Farmer said “women have been in the driver’s seat” in black communities for too long and that the district needed “a man’s voice in Washington,” not that of a “little school teacher.” So she drove the neighborhoods with a loudspeaker saying "this is fighting Shirley Chisholm!" She won the election and became the first Black woman elected to Congress.
Representing urban Brooklyn, she felt slighted by her appointment to the Agriculture Committee. Then, she used that seat to expand the food stamp program and improve nutrition for women and children.
She eventually served on the Education and Veteran's committees, and co-founded both the Black and Women's congressional caucuses.
As the first Black woman from a major political party to run for President, she was blocked from participating in televised debates. She took legal action, and was eventually allowed one speech. After surviving 3 assassination attempts, she remained, in her own words "Unbought and Unbossed".
Timing
162 words = 81 seconds
aim: 120 -160 words
Our Logical Brain: Explain the importance of the story using dates, data, statistics, etc to reinforce it. This aims to engage the neocortex, where rational and analytical thought occurs.
Chisholm served 7 terms as a U.S. Representative, fighting for blacks and the poor. Barack Obama posthumously awarded her the congressional medal of honor "I'm proud to say it: Shirley Chisholm had guts!"
Timing
33 words (17 seconds)
aim: 20-40 words
Our Tribal Brain: Connect the story to where we are today. This can give the viewer a sense that they are part of a continuum in which the history and the present are joined. This feeling of connectedness occurs in the brain's Limbic System, which has no capacity for the expression of ideas as language, but is the most important factor for moving audiences beyond reaction to action.
Chisholm wrote: “I hope if I am remembered it will finally be for what I have done, not for what I happen to be. And I hope that my having made it, the hard way, can be some kind of inspiration, particularly to women.”
Timing
44 words (22 seconds)
aim: 20-40 words
What do you want the audience to do with this new information? What can be said to move the viewer beyond reaction to action? Example:
Shirley Chisholm famously advised “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."
Where are you going to bring your folding chair?
Timing
27 words =14 seconds
aim: 6-20 words
517 words
259 seconds as is in this version.
target = 90-120 seconds
Chisholm
President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Chisholm the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “When Shirley was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee, she said, ‘Apparently all they know in Washington about Brooklyn was a tree grew there.’”
Shirley Chisholm was born in 1924 to immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York. She attended a prestigious, integrated, all Girls’ High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant. She enrolled in Brooklyn College on a scholarship and graduated cum laude with a B.A. in sociology in 1946. In 1952, she earned a Master of Arts-Elementary Education from Columbia University. After college, Chisholm taught and became director of early education programs, and later a consultant to New York City’s Division of Day Care. She was active in multiple political campaigns, civil rights, and education advocacy organizations. Chisholm frequently clashed with male leaders over her push to expand leadership roles to women within these organizations.
A redistricting plan that created a new congressional district in Bed–Stuy convinced her to run for Congress. She faced Republican–James Farmer, one of the principal figures of the civil rights movement. The candidates held similar positions, but Farmer argued that “women have been in the driver’s seat” in black communities for too long and that the district needed “a man’s voice in Washington,” not that of a “little schoolteacher.” Chisholm won the general election by a resounding 67 percent of the vote, becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair,” Chisholm famously said.
Chisholm had a successful congressional career prior to her Presidential run, working on Agriculture, Education, and Veteran’s committees. She was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Women’s Caucus. Chisholm was the first Black candidate from a major party and the first woman in the Democratic party to run for President in 1972. She was blocked from participating in televised debates, but after taking legal action, networks allowed her to make one speech. There were three confirmed assassination threats during her campaign. Undeterred, Chisholm ran on the slogan: Unbought and Unbossed.
She campaigned across the country stating that no other candidates represented the interests of Blacks and the inner–city poor. At the Democratic National Convention, she received 152 delegate votes, 10 percent of the total, a respectable showing given her modest funding. While the presidential bid enhanced Chisholm’s national profile, it stirred controversy among House colleagues. Pervasive gender discrimination, she noted, cut across racial lines: “Black male politicians are no different from white male politicians. This ‘woman thing' is so deep. I've found it out in this campaign if I never knew it before.”
Chisholm served 7 terms as U.S. Representative, retiring from office in 1982. She returned to teaching, at Mount Holyoke College, and became a popular lecturer on campuses across the nation. Chisholm, who died in 2005, wrote: “I hope if I am remembered it will finally be for what I have done, not for what I happen to be. And I hope that my having made it, the hard way, can be some kind of inspiration, particularly to women.”