According to Berger’s argument media influence the way African Americans are portrayed as poor and victimized. During a march in Selma, black people were peacefully protesting about voting and school rights. In the midst of the protest, photographs were captured of how tear gas and clubs were swung at protesters who were black. Newspapers, Tv, and other forms of media at the time disregarded photos illustrating a nonviolent protest led by black people but instead depicting black people as powerless and the officers who were white as superior abusing their authority. “After all, graphic photographs of violence tend to be more attention getting and marketable than photographs of orderly lines of marchers armed only with protest placards or articles detailing the economic  and social inequalities facing blacks.” ( Berger, pg 6) white people tend to care about violence on black people but will be awareness to the cause.

Bill Big Broonzy sang these words “if you black stick to the back if you brown stay around. Not to be taken racially, in my opinion, what he said is somewhat fitting.

I agree with Berger that the media show how blacks suffer at the hands of the whites, even depicted in photographs, books, and movies.  The publicity of the media help perceives the mindset of the whites on how they view blacks. They now realize that blacks are constantly the victims.

Regardless of how the media choose to do its publicity on whatever images they advertise, one should treat a person accordingly and not because of the color of one’s skin.

 So much has changed in today’s world; we are now supporting each other we are embracing the fact that we are of one accord no matter the color of one’s skin. Thanks to those who made it possible to let us know that black did not start with slavery, and they are not always wrong.

Berger states that media would only use depictions of blacks as victims to get their white readers’ attention since images of violence draw more attention than people marching peacefully to fight for their rights. However, I would argue that this is not the only way to get people’s attention toward a cause when situations are turned into chaos. What happened to all those people in the photographs? If we can stand to see those images, we can also stand to hear their voices. 

             It’s important to know  that  many white people support racial injustice but it’s like not supporting black people because we have seen more injustice against black than white and there is still not a big change in the case. The media could not calm down everything because of the power that gives to the black people but still doesn’t clean the image of black people at all. It’s like they are supporting the crime just committed but not supporting a change therefore I agree with Berger because black still have to make their own movement.

People of color are almost always  perceived as the victims in the photographs because they take them to make it appear to everyone what’s going on with black people today and how we are treated. I agree that they use photographs of black people when they are seen as the victims, when George Floyd’s situation happened they used him all over and he seemed like the victim of this police brutality. although  Black and caucasian people were protesting against what they did to George Floyd. white people do tend to put black people  on the front page and they are perceived as the victim so whites can be aware of what’s happening,

In the Introduction to his book Seeing through Race, Martin A. Berger (not related to John Berger) lays out the thesis of his book’s interpretation of the photography associated with the U.S. Civil Rights era (1950s &1960s). According to Berger, newspaper and magazine editors selected photographs based on their perceived power to draw out the of their white readers. The result, Berger continues, was that “the media could not assuage the racial anxieties of whites without affecting the depiction of blacks.” This meant that photographs that featured the black protestors succumbing to white violence was more common than depictions of black-led political action. In other words, editors, especially white ones, were more likely to use photographs featuring black people as victims as opposed to black people standing up for their rights.

Recently, we have seen a similar dynamic at play as media depictions of the killing of George Floyd caused many white allies to take to the streets in solidarity with black Americans. We have also seen media depictions of African-American protests incite white racial anxieties about black violence.

What do you make of Berger’s argument? Do you agree, disagree, or something in between? Use the information from Chapter 4 of They Say/I Say and the “Sheridan Baker Thesis Machine” and write a thesis statement in which you take a position on Berger’s argument.