by Chase Lowenstein 

As the tough streets of the Big Easy lose their young ones to staggering murder rates, residents find themselves scrambling for a solution. Tuesday night Spike Lee came to town to launch his new murder-reduction campaign, "Flip the Script" with Mayor Mitch. The multimedia initiative is geared towards raising awareness about the way the media and the public tend to paint murder within the African-American community as a racially divided issue, rather than a citywide epidemic. 

“Flip the Script” encourages people of all races and backgrounds to take responsibility for the health of their city. The movement was planned in partnership by Landrieu, director Spike Lee & co., and the Urban League of Greater New Orleans.

"Flip the Script" will operate within NOLA FOR LIFE, Mayor Landrieu’s comprehensive murder reduction strategy that includes prevention and economic opportunity in its plan to empower neighborhoods struggling with violence. Landrieu used his opening speech as an opportunity to use one of his favorite slogans.

"...Katrina and Rita did not cause all of our problems, we had many before we got here. But we're all committed together under the banner of 'one team, one fight, one voice, one city' to think about rebuilding the city that we always wanted to be".

As Spike Lee put it, "This is a 21st century form of genocide, we have to stop it". Lee went on to say that the  ‘I'll just hold my children closer and hopefully they won't get hit’ mentality isn’t working. Lee encourages citizens of New Orleans to stand together as a city and step outside our own lives to make a difference.

According to Landrieu’s team, "Flip the Script" will put forth positive messages in the form of television ads, radio announcements, and billboards. Rather than reminding community members of past tragedies, the campaign plans to replace violent headlines with directives of hope.

The advertising specialists at Spike DDB have come up with a creative way of changing the way we view murder around us. They took existing headlines such as " 18 Year Old Black Male is Given Life Sentence Without Hope for Parole" and took out certain words leaving "18 Year Old Black Male is Given Hope". The idea is to make these messages so prevalent that people start to view the issue as one with a happy ending.

Mayor Landrieu noted the discrepancy in public empathy between children who are victimized and young African-American men who die from gun violence.

"When it gets to young African American men killing young  African American Men, we go to sleep on that...what this is designed to do is to provoke and to get thought into the move to the next step".

Speakers claimed that NOLA residents are desensitized to the issue because of the media’s rhetoric on the issue. 

Jason Rodriguez of Spike DDB told the audience, "When you take the time to look closer this city has so much love to offer, but unfortunately the headlines, they just don't show that".

Flip the Script argues that residents of troubled cities too often divide themselves along lines of crime. In a radio commercial put out by NOLA FOR LIFE, a resident on the inside says, "Nobody's thinking about what I can be in life or who I can be, we're more worried about living for today and being alive tomorrow".

At the event, mother Patrina Peters spoke of her son, Damond, and how he fell victim to senseless violence. She explained that many mothers stay up at night praying their sons come home. Audience members were brought to tears as Patrina brought to light the tragic fact that sometimes, they just don't. She left the audience with an encouraging message - "I believe our young men can flip the script, please join me in helping them do it".

An unlikely believer also joined the party that night. Chevron had a representative attending and presented mayor Landrieu with a $1 million donation to the NOLA FOR LIFE fund. The fund is accepting tax-deductable donations from anyone willing. Mayor Landrieu was extremely thankful for Chevron's donation, which tipped the $2 million fund over its halfway mark just an hour into the event.

The campaign is now officially underway and to help stress it's importance, Nolan Rollins of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans said, "When you see yourself differently, you see the future that you deserve - not the future that statistics confine your potential to. Those same statistics are the shackles of our imagination and the possibility of opportunity"

To donate to the NOLA FOR LIFE fund please visit the campaign’s website. For more info on NOLA FOR LIFE and Flip the Script, click here.