Professor

Allow KIM to introduce to you………Professor Michael D. Harris, Author of the book ‘Colored pictures: race and visual representation’.

Dit artikel verscheen ook op de website van kennisinstituut Atria.

Michael D Harris is a professor of art history (Emory University), a curator and an artist. Harris has published the book Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation (2003) and has contributed to or co-authored a number of publications. In his book Harris discusses the role of visual representation in the construction of race in 19^th-century America. According to Harris the visual imagery of black Americans in art and popular culture created for the larger population the stereotypes that are associated with race.

KIM: How did the visual representation of African-Americans in the 19^th century affect the race relations in America?

Michael Harris: The visual images of black Americans made ‘the idea’ of race real for Americans. Minstrelsy, for instance, was a black variety performance that people saw on slave plantations in the late 18^th century and early 19^th century. When white people took that performance and exaggerated certain performance aspects such as skin color, big red lips and overly silly behavior, they made the stereotype that blacks were not suitable for participating in middle class society notable for a larger audience via popular culture. This popular visual image was used to legitimize slavery and to maintain the concept of the Other. But also after the slave period the depictions in the minstrel shows and in publications of political magazines, such as Harpers weekly, were used to preserve the racism and the idea that black people were lesser and not worthy of the rights of citizenship.