I agree with Berger’s stance on photography associated with the U.S. Civil Rights Era because there will always be a bias in photography when the person behind the camera chooses what they want to see and not the whole picture. Their eyes see what is in front of them. Their brain  rationalizes it as an image worthy of capture and then they decide to take the picture. They can make the call to turn a blind eye or better yet not submit pictures.

Adding onto the art of selective journalism, editors are needed. Now these editors can decide what to remove, include and implant through each article. Such phrases, objects, reactions from the crowd, and etc. As long as people can choose what they want you to see there will always be a bias narrative and above all an unexpected outcome of the general public.

Berger’s argument about the media influence on African-Americans is fairly accurate and I agree with him.  The media always tries to portray African-Americans only a certain way. Editors try to appeal to white people majority of the time. During protests, the media show people of color as victims and not them fighting for what they deserve. Not only that, they don’t show how they come, which is in peace.

I agree with Berger’s argument that the media focuses on what catches the attention of white audiences. Berger states how black protestors succumbing to white violence was more common to see than black led political action. Media only shows what white audiences would like to see. Berger also states how the media could not assuage the racial anxieties of whites without affecting the depiction of blacks. This shows that the media does not want to show black people standing up but rather them being victims.

In the introduction “Seeing Through Race”, Martin Berger tells us that newspapers and magazine editors selected photographs based on their perceived power to draw out their white readers. He also says that white power over black helped make the images nonthreathing to white people. However, I believe that there are some white people who are against racism and injustice, for example there were many white protesters supporting black lives matter after the killing of George Floyd. I agree that most of the editors were mostly likely to use photographs of black people as victims and standing for their rights because all images of violence tend to be more attention getting and marketable.  

I agree with what Berger stated. Black people have suffered for a very long time. In the early days, they were powerless to stand up for themselves because they were always a target of something. In today’s society, when the people of color try to stand up for themselves, it turns into something more drastic where there are protests which most times leads to arrest. Some white people still have the mindset that blacks are inferior to them. So when they become a victim of something, it would be more likely to portray that, in contrast to them displayed in the media by standing up for what they believe in, having a voice, and succeeding at it. People of color struggle to have rights in society because racism is still alive today.

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.