Neda video and Native images

Once again the Racialicious blog brings us a post worth considering:

American “Activism”:  On the Neda Video, and Other Images of the Brutal Third World

By Catherine A. TraywickI have often wondered about photojournalists’ depictions of the third world which often disproportionately emphasize the negative—particularly as compared to depictions of the first world. I’ve also been troubled by our apparent preference for images of the third world that seem to affirm our perceptions of its brutal nature. Take a look at Pulitzer Prize winners over the last decade, for example…it’s a scrapbook of third world suffering and devastation: Kevin Carter’s controversial photo of a Sudanese baby being stalked by a vulture, Stephanie Walsh’s photo series depicting a Kenyan woman’s circumcision, Carolyn Cole’s images of the effects of the Liberian civil war, Adrees Latif’s photograph of a fatally wounded man lying in a street in Myanmar, and the list goes on. Patrick Farrell, this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner for “Breaking News Photography” similarly depicts “provocative, impeccably composed images of despair after Hurricane Ike and other lethal storms caused a humanitarian disaster in Haiti.”

What leads me to argue that this is not simply a race issue, however, is our culture’s reverence for photos like those of Damon Winter—also a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer—which consist of triumphant, inspiring images of Barack Obama campaigning during the presidential primary. We love heroic depictions of America(ns), regardless of skin color—emphasis on the “heroic,” because that is how we love to see ourselves, especially in relation to the rest of world.

That’s the issue at hand, really. We craft our own national and cultural identity in opposition the that of the rest of the world; the more devastating and woeful they are, the bigger and brighter we are by comparison.

The Neda video affirms this dichotomy of the world for us, depicting “them” as either brutish or helpless while reifying our sense of superior self and, in so doing, activating our sense of entitlement as the the third world’s savior.Comment:  Here's the comment I posted:

Excellent point about how we portray ourselves. I'd say it applies not only to the rest of the world, but to our own white/brown dichotomy.

I made a similar point when I analyzed the state quarters program a couple of years ago:

Summarizing the quarters' message: The first (Anglo) Americans arrived by ship, fought for liberty, marched westward, found great beauty, and built great cities and monuments.

I think the only POC the quarters depicted was King Kamehameha.

Consider a gallery of Native American images. What do you see? People of the distant past. People stuck in warrior mode. Losers. Victims. The "vanishing breed."

What don't you see? Astronauts, scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, professors, writers--i.e., anyone who doesn't fit the stereotypical mold. We celebrate white accomplishments and ignore nonwhite accomplishments. Hollywood and the rest of America's old guard can't fathom the idea of minority leaders and heroes.

When someone like Sonia Sotomayor appears, we're incredulous. She's brown-skinned! She couldn't possibly be intellectual, objective, and even-tempered, could she?! And so it goes.

For more on the subject, see "Cowboys and Indians" Images and the Stereotype of the Month contest.