If you see it, you believe it.
In 2018, I was in a meeting presenting storyboards to a client who was the head of a large organization’s innovation team, with five of my white male team members. “I like everything but the woman in the image is wrong… well, she’s Black and we don’t have Black managers.” the client said. He said it as if that sort of comment was insightful or perhaps an oversight of mine, that he caught. I earnestly appealed to him saying, though it may not be what your company looks like today, this project reflects what your [company] of the future will look like — in 2025. All of my team members sat in silence not wanting to upset him, and only our partner spoke to back me up. That conversation was quickly curtailed, I ended up changing that image to a white man, and my male counterparts went on to tell tales of how they bravely stood up to a racist client. But the most disheartening part about this experience was that it was clear to me that this man of innovation didn’t really have an interest in seeing the future look differently.
This memory came flooding back to me in the past few days as I’ve been consuming recent pop-culture events in the media. There was a common through-line in the events I couldn’t help but notice- How images control the narrative. We live in a visual world and for the most part, images seep into our subconscious minds and germinate slowly until over time, they become our actions and beliefs. Omission in imagery is just as powerful.
Dr Seuss-gate: For decades, racist depictions of Black and Asian people illustrated in Dr. Seuss’ books were considered okay. But Dr. Seuss Enterprises recently pulled 6 books, citing that these illustrations as “harmful and wrong.”
Meghan Markle: We learned of so many shocking accounts of injustice she suffered under the workings of the “The Firm” in addition to racist remarks made by unnamed family member. She, Archie and Harry were not asked to be a part of a royal family picture but it was spun by press as though they refused to be a part. By omitting them, they were doing the crucial work of maintaining the long-held image of power. Meghan states that growing up as a woman of color, she knows what it feels like to see someone who looks like her in a certain positions. “If you can see it, you can be it!” she teaches her son.
Bachelor Nation (don’t judge): Rachel Lindsey rightly expressed her dismay at how the Bachelor franchise exploited the current bachelor by airing what felt like should’ve been a private moment between him and his father. Instead of protecting him and the sensitive nature of the topic, all they did was further propagate deeply rooted negative stereotypes of Black absentee fathers, to be judged from a snap moment in time, with no context.
Institutions, complicit silence and not questioning what we’re seeing, all contribute to how we see ourselves and where we think we belong. If you’re white, you know that you belong in all spaces, including images promoting positions of leadership and general good. I instinctively enter every place with double consciousness, gauging how much I belong, so that I can temper my actions and speech accordingly. I get what they call, rep sweats, when I see an Asian person on screen, hoping they’re cool or portrayed as cool rather than a 2D character. This is the power of representation. It’s not enough just to have it, it needs to be varied, honest and celebratory. And it’s important to question the source of that image. Anything we see, we believe. I want to see it, so that you also know I can be it.
