The Consequences Of An Image - The Serena Williams Cartoon

The controversy over the Herald Sun's published cartoon by Mark Knight draws much debate - but the issue is far from new.

In a contemporary context, the media is arguably one of the largest influences on a viewer's racial bias - whether the creators and broadcasters of that content are aware of the receptive consequences or not.

Mark Knight, The Herald Sun / Via japantimes.co.jp

By this point, most people have most likely already seen the controversial cartoon of tennis player Serena Williams, posted on Twitter by the Herald Sun, an Australian newspaper. The cartoon of the sports icon, the Herald Sun defends, is supposed to highlight that William’s behavior during her match with Naomi Osaka during the finals of the US Open were that of a “sore loser”. Her physical features in the depiction are heavily exaggerated, which admittedly is a characteristic of many critical cartoons from a variety of newspapers. However - what drew attention in this case, what made this cartoon different - was Mark Knight’s drawing style. William’s physical features in the cartoon hold a striking, undeniable resemblance to a false caricature of the Black Self that holds more than the intention to criticize an individual’s actions. These visual representations exhibit stereotypes and subtexts with roots so deep, they been viciously perpetuated since the first accounts of Africa by its colonizers.The drawing style might not seem relevant to some, such as the Herald Sun, who defends their work: “If the self-appointed censors of Mark Knight get their way on his Serena Williams cartoon, out new politically correct life will be very dull indeed.” This simply is an unsound argument - not only for the deliberate ignorance of a vast historical context of discrimination, oppression, and stereotyping against African Americans, but for the suggestion that the caricatured images of these individuals, such as Serena Williams, are inconsequential in nature and have no future or lasting effect on the biases and opinions of its audience and readership. The reality is quite the opposite. In a contemporary context, the media is arguably one of the largest influences on a viewer's racial bias - whether the creators and broadcasters of that content are aware of the receptive consequences or not. This can pervade even our most sacred institutions, such as our government. The concept that people’s opinions on race can be unwillingly influenced by images in media is overwhelming by itself - but the firsthand testimony of a policymaker, John Enchilman, that these images can be used to intentionally manipulate the general public is, in plain English, downright terrifying. Unfortunately, the deeper you gaze into this hole, the deeper it gets.

"...by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities."

Washington Post / Via trueactivist.com

The examples throughout U.S. history alone are enough to exemplify this effect. During the Richard Nixon presidential campaign in the sixties, Nixon’s foreign policy chief, John Ehrlichman, admitted during a secretly recorded verbal exchange that "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people," He continued, "You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders. Raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did” (LoBianco).

"So let's look at the statistics. The United States is home to 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners. Think about that." - Barack Obama

NBC News / Via nbcnews.com

In 1970, the U.S. prison population was just above 327,000, today the prison population today is over 2 million (Davis). Of that population, African Americans make up the largest racial chunk: “African Americans make up 6.5% of the American population, but 40.2% of the prison populace. While a white male has a 1 in 17 chance of ending up behind bars, for black males it is 1 in 3” (Turan). Effectively enumerating the causes of this distinction are easier than one might assume: the answers lie in our own policies, in the past behavior of our leaders and officials, and in an american history deeply rooted in white supremacy - whether we like that fact or not.

The Constitutional "Loophole" that technically permits slavery used to target certain groups

Netflix / Via blackgirlnerds.com

One source, interestingly enough, our own Constitution of the United States. The 13th Amendment reads: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” (US Const. amend. XIII, sec. 1). It is this “loophole,” as some scholars call it, that creates the legal precedent that “involuntary servitude” (more commonly referred to as slavery,) is acceptable in certain contexts, so long as that person has been convicted of a crime. True, the concept in and of itself does not appear to be intentionally malicious on its face. Perhaps, what started out as a good-willed provision to teach criminals to atone for their misdeeds evolved to become far more complicated than originally planned. Ava DuVernay's documentary ”13th,” presents the idea that once slavery was abolished in 1789, the once flourishing Southern America lost its primary source of cheap labor: that provided by black slaves. DuVernay presents the idea that this “loophole” in the 13th Amendment was placed as a crutch to aid the struggling Reconstruction of the late Confederate South. The “loophole” takes effect, and unpaid labor is provided to the Reconstruction. But, once the realization dawned that jail labor would not be enough to replace the presence of black slaves, DuVernay theorizes that black people were intentionally targeted and arrested for inconsequential, arbitrary, and sometimes nonexistent crimes. It is in this way that black people were placed back onto the fields as servants, (without pay, or with pay that was well below the minimum wage.) It’s a large charge in anyone's book to suggest a conspiracy as large as this. An even more daring one is to suggest that this phenomenon persists today - but that is precisely the case here. It is in this way that the cycle of forced labor to support American industry endured. But what’s this got to do with media?

What starts out as a genuine, rational fear of rapists, murderers, and criminals, develops into sometimes involuntary racial profiling and stereotype-creating.

Relando Thompkins-Jones, MSW / Via notesfromanaspiringhumanitarian.com

Through the perpetuation of the negative portrayals of African Americans through media, biases concerning African Americans begin to slowly - but surely - shift for the worse, and begin to affect the way that black people are approached by law enforcement. Here enters the concept of the Mythology of Black Criminality. The Mythology of Black Criminality is a term used to describe the unrelenting narrative of crime, fear, and danger in media when it comes to African Americans. You might observe this phenomenon on the evening news, when certain individuals are vilified and some are not. This kind of rhetoric implies a separation of people a “us” and “them” mentality. What starts out as a genuine, rational fear of rapists, murderers, and criminals, develops into sometimes involuntary racial profiling and stereotype-creating. This happens because of the repeated association of certain groups with certain types of activities, such as crime.

Examples of Media Influencing Opinions on Race

Twitter.com / Via time.com

Examples of the mythology of criminality present themselves in more ways than one, and in more than one racial group. One contemporary example is President Donald J. Trump’s various remarks throughout his 2016 presidential campaign. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people” (Lee).

Moviestore / Moviestore/REX / Via bbc.com

D.W. Griffith’s 1915 “The Birth of a Nation,” (Originally titled, “The Clansman,”) is an American film, aiming on its face to inspire American patriotism through adventure in its viewers. The film’s antagonists, however, are almost exclusively individuals donned in blackface, who’s characters misbehave, attempt to rape women, and commit murder. An intertitle in the film reads "The former enemies of North and South are united again in defense of their Aryan birthright." It is said that this film inspired the revival of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915 (Southern Hollows). Pat Loughney, curator in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, commented on the film in stating: "Griffith's heavily propagandized version of race history, reinforced by an emotionally charged melodrama, was absorbed as truth by a majority of those who saw it." (D’ooge, 2003). In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," and chose it for preservation in the National Film Registry (D’ooge, 2003).

Serena Williams isn't a "sore loser". She's fed up.

Jeff Gross via Getty Images / Via huffingtonpost.com

Media based racism represents a covert type of racism, one that is cloaked in claims of innocence and phrases like “Lighten up, it’s a joke!”. It pervades our minds and the way we perceive groups on a wide scale, and seems to have real life consequences on the people it concerns: whether it comes to stop and frisk misuse, loopholes in the 13th Amendment used to take advantage of people of color, The Mythology of Black Criminality, and the criminalization and association of drugs like marijuana with minorities. It re-morphs and re-disguises itself in various forms. The only way to confront it is to first, acknowledge that it exists - and in the case of Serena Williams (to those of us are are aware of the perceptual consequences) it’s only the tip of the vast, endless iceberg. Mark Knight’s stylistic choices can be deemed conclusively as wrong, and no amount of “free press,” “it’s a joke,” “snowflakes,” or “I didn’t mean to,” can cover it up.

Sources

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“Melbourne's Herald Sun Reprints 'Racist' Cartoon of Serena Williams.” The Japan Times, www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/09/12/asia-pacific/social-issues-asia-pacific/melbournes-herald-sun-reprints-racist-cartoon-serena-williams/#.W6kNUPlKhpg.

“The Birth of a Nation (1915).” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/title/tt0004972/.

“Guardians of the Black Image.” Imajen, 2 May 2015, www.imajen.com/2015/05/guardians-of-the-black-image/.

"A 1905 Silent Movie Revolutionizes American Film—and Radicalizes American Nationalists". Southern Hollows podcast. Retrieved 3 June 2018.

D'OOGE, CRAIG. “'The Birth of a Nation' Symposium on Classic Film Discusses Inaccuracies and Virtues.” Planning D-Day (April 2003) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin, Victor, www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/94/9413/nation.html.

Lee, Michelle Ye Hee. “Analysis | Donald Trump’s false comments connecting Mexican immigrants and crime.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 8 July 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/08/donald-trumps-false-comments-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/?utm_term=.ceca256a7674.

Davis, Rachaell. “Slavery, Incarceration & Racism: 14 Disturbing Connections Examined In Ava DuVernay's Oscar-Nominated '13th' Documentary.” Essence.com, www.essence.com/festival/ava-duvernay-13th-documentary-facts#951875

LoBianco, Tom. “Report: Nixon's war on drugs targeted black people.” CNN, Cable News Network, 24 Mar. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html.

Turan, Kenneth. “Ava DuVernay's documentary '13th' simmers with anger and burns with eloquence.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 6 Oct. 2016, www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-13th-review-20161001-snap-story.html.

U.S. Constitution. Amend. XIII, Sec. 1.

“Obama Visits Prison in Push for Reform.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/obama-set-visit-oklahoma-prison-push-criminal-justice-reform-n393056.

“Racial Profiling in ‘Post-Racial’ Times.” N.A.H., 17 Jan. 2016, notesfromanaspiringhumanitarian.com/racial-profiling-in-post-racial-times/.

“John Ehrlichman – True Activist.” True Activist, www.trueactivist.com/tag/john-ehrlichman/

“Ava-DuVernay-13th-Documentary-Netflix.” Black Girl Nerds, blackgirlnerds.com/black-girl-nerds-discuss-firsttimeisawme/ava-duvernay-13th-documentary-netflix/.

Holmes, Lindsay. “Serena Williams Gets Real About Managing Anxiety.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 June 2018, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/serena-williams-anxiety-motherhood_us_5ae1d4fbe4b02baed1b76a51.

“Relando Thompkins-Jones.” Relando Thompkins-Jones, www.relandothompkinsjones.com/.

Reilly, Katie. “Donald Trump: All the Times He's Insulted Mexico.” Time, Time, 31 Aug. 2016, time.com/4473972/donald-trump-mexico-meeting-insult/.

DuVernay, Ava. “13th (2016).”, Netlfix, www.imdb.com/title/tt5895028/.