words.
"Imagery helps frame the narrative arc of a story, particularly one laden
with racial recriminations, and critics have long denounced the
negative media portrayal of African-Americans. In the aftermath of
Brown’s death, they decried the use of a photo in which he flashes what
has been alternately characterized as a peace sign and a gang sign,
instead of his high school graduation picture, reinforcing damaging
stereotypes. In protest, activists launched a Twitter campaign, using the hashtag #iftheygunnedmedown.
Thousands of African-Americans posted contrasting pictures of
themselves, one respectable and one less flattering, musing about which
photo the press would use to portray them if they were killed and how
that choice would affect the public perception of and reaction to their
deaths. Other critics lamented the emphasis that Brown was college bound, as implicitly suggesting that the killing of black teenagers whose trajectory is less admirable is somehow less tragic.
...The looting in Ferguson will not heal the community or bring comfort to
Brown’s grieving family. But the media do incalculable damage in framing
the town’s response as the monolithic action of vandals or
decontextualizing the rage at another young African-American life lost
at the hands of the police."
ALJAZEERA AMERICA: The second tragedy of the Michael Brown shooting
SEE ALSO:
black like me.
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