(The Root) — Rapper Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, recently volunteered to be force-fed as the subject of a human rights video. The video demonstrates the standard nasal-to-stomach force-feeding procedure employed at Guantanamo Bay to circumnavigate prisoners' hunger strikes and fasts.
The video was made by noted documentarian Asif Kapadia for the human rights group Reprieve. Many are urging the United States to suspend its force-feeding of prisoners, especially during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, which begins Monday evening. Some of the prisoners have been striking for months, and it is reported that 44 of them — some of them Muslims — are being force-fed in the manner depicted in the video, which many viewers have found difficult to watch. (I personally threw in the towel seconds after the procedure began on the video.)
Though some wonder at the theatrics involved in the production of the video (cinematic camera angles, the chains, etc.), there is no doubt that it has raised awareness of force-feeding at Guantanamo Bay, and it definitely has Twitter talking.
Read more at the Smoking Section.
Tracy Clayton is a writer, humorist and blogger from Louisville, Ky.