Multicultural Life
Daniel Patrick Moynihan crafted a report for the LBJ administration titled “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.” It is really just one of several examples of imagery in which white men (and occasionally women) are the leading voices describing the problems black society. Moynihan’s writing is composed of imagery that a person living in privilege like himself could never know first-hand: “The Negro family, battered and harassed by discrimination, injustice, and uprooting, is in the deepest trouble…the Negro community has been forced into a matriarchal structure which, because it is so out of line with the rest of the American society, seriously retards the progress of the group as a whole, and imposes a crushing burden on the Negro male and, in consequence, on a great many Negro women as well.” That this was actually a government report is an indictment of how the reality of black life it describes was utterly dependent upon out-of-touch members of white society for change, underscoring their own lack of agency.
The Civil War
The American Civil War was specifically fought over just one issue, no matter what anyone says: the enslavement of human beings with black or brown skin. In the aftermath of the war, historical accounts routinely downplayed or even excised the role of slaves in the conflict while transforming it into a story almost entirely about the honor and bravery of white soldiers. One such example reveals how even the President of the United States relied upon imagery which highlighted this incomplete historical accounting: “Woodrow Wilson, when he addressed the crowd, did not mention slavery but asserted that the war’s meaning could be found in the splendid valor, the manly devotion of the men then arrayed against one another, now grasping hands and smiling into each other’s eyes.” Significant only by virtue of its absence is any imagery of the oppressed black people.
Obama’s Hope
The foundational centerpiece of the Obama candidacy for President and subsequent administration of the Presidency was famously summed up in the idea of first having hope and then keeping that hope alive no matter how many times it was inevitably dashed. The author engages imagery to underline both the circumstances and necessity for having hope when he writes “It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a mill worker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.” This imagery is effective because it reinforces the reality that hope is a commodity with the most value among those in situations where it is most difficult to possess. What connects these examples together thematically is the precision of imagery describing people in a time or place of desperation.
