Am I A Spectacle to You?! Are You (Not) Entertained?

Have you ever wondered why when it comes to minorities and non-Europeans the media is seemingly more than happy to show pictures of Africans and minorities in the worst light? When was the last time you saw a picture of a naked little white child with flies buzzing around and a stomach distended due to malnutrition. I'm waiting...you haven't! (According to missionaries I've talked to, donors stateside will not give or sponsor children if they look "too healthy" or appear not to "need assistance". What foolishness!) I get so tired of seeing minorities exploited on TV and print publications, just for the fact that "poverty sells". Unless a minority is scoring a touchdown, dunking a basketball, or performing comedy and making money for big business and advertisers, Western media doesn't tend to publicize them in a positive light the majority of the time. I mean how many times did we have to see pictures of Black "looters" trying to stay alive during Hurricane Katrina, while white "finders" were shown sympathy in the media? Most of the time when we see Blacks or Hispanics on the evening news (or "Cops"), they are wearing dreads and a white tee and being led to jail in handcuffs. Why is this? I believe there are several reasons. One reason is that reporting news of minorities sells papers and magazines because it only further reinforces the institutionalized and cultural biases of WASP's against others who are not like them. After all, if all I see are Blacks making mischief in the projects or getting arrested, I can say, "See! I told you THOSE PEOPLE were no good". What we see in the media then becomes self-fulfilling prophesy of what we wanted to believe anyway in order to make ourselves appear superior. Angela, a friend of mine, expressed her disappointment and disgust to tbt* (Tampa Bay Times magazine, a publication of the St Pete Times) for printing a disgraceful picture of a naked Haitian lady entering labor during Tropical Storm Hanna.

tbt* News Talk, Letters to the Editor 9/10/2008, p. 22
An insensitive photo

Re: Hanna can’t stop this baby (World in Snap photo, tbt*
Sept. 5)

I was a fan of your newspaper until last Friday. I am outraged by the photo showing U.N. peacekeepers carrying a pregnant Haitian pregnant woman in labor into a delivery area during Tropical Storm Hanna. She was naked from her stomach down!

Why would you choose to display such a private moment in your newspaper? I am a brown-skinned minority, and I am greatly offended. It makes the woman look like a National Geographic spectacle. Is that how you see brown-skinned minorities? Would you photograph a pregnant Caucasian woman (regardless of what country she is from) like that? I highly doubt it.

The persons who approved the publication of this photo are insensitive beings. How would you like a photographer to capture your mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, or aunts lying on a cot naked from the stomach down, pregnant and in labor, spread eagle and displayed for a large population to see?

Angela Esquitoria Steele, Tampa