Monday, July 16, 2007

Week 4 Media Item #1: The Race


The above cartoon, Carrerra de Obstaculos - Steeplechase by Garcia Segovia depicts two men in a race. One is white, the other is black. The white man's race is easy, but the black man's race has many obstacles in the way such as overcoming poverty, getting an education, overcoming high child mortality rates, and overcoming HIV/AIDS in the community. This is a depiction of two people going for the same goal, but one has more obstacles to overcome due to the white man's privileges. This relates to the video viewed this week called Race: The Power of an Illusion, Part II, The Story We Tell.
The video depicted the story of racism that has been told by the elite that created a system of privileges for the whites, and a system of oppression for blacks. This cartoon shows how this system is still present today. Whites throughout history have created a story about how black are inferior and they are somehow superior over the blacks. This led to a social system that favored the whites and oppressed the blacks. Some of these oppressions are manifested in the cartoon as poor education in black communities, high AIDS rates, high child mortality rates, and poverty that is not seen in many other communities. The video discussed how white society created the gap and the cartoon shows how the gap is still manifested in today's world.
I thought the cartoon was very inovativein its design. A race to a goal for two runners. But one of the runners is white, while the other is black. The white runner has a clear path with no obstacles. The black runner has to overcome a glaring number of obstacles in order to achieve the same goal. I found this cartoon to be very simple and straightforward in it's message, and I liked it for that reason. It was innovative and effective in communicating it's message.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)