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What’s Worth Fighting For?
The fight for racial equality has been a human endeavor for almost two hundred years, especially
when examining the topic of anti-slavery and civil rights. The main root of the fight has
remained mainly the same since the 1800’s, whereby groups of individuals are fighting for
equality, equity, and acceptance in regards to their rights as a civilian in the western hemisphere.
Starting in the 1800’s, at the end of the enlightenment era, new theories developed which
furthered the divide between mankind. The five photos in this essay relate categorically to the
concepts of enlightenment, anti-slavery, anti-exploitation, anti-colonalism, and cultural
exchanges between civilizations. These concepts are illustrated through the photos of “Types of
Mankind”, Portrait of the American Civil War, Racist Capitalism, an NAACP poster, and the
Children’s Crusade. While the root of what is being fought for has remained the same, the fight
itself has changed in response to bills that have passed, inequalities that have been exposed, or
crimes that have been committed. These images span from 1854 to 2020, and the common theme
that ties them together is the struggle of a deprived group to gain the rights and privileges that
others enjoy in the society in which they live. The photo essay begins in 1854 with the fight to
end slavery and ends in 2020 with the fight to end police brutality towards Black citizens.
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Enlightenment (reason/liberalism)
“Types of Mankind” 1854 created by Josiah Clark Nott and George R. Glidden
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e7/3b/69/e73b69d45801edcd137354ae14c4ba31.jpg
Cancel culture (2021)
https://foothilldragonpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/cancel-900x675.png
The photo entitled “Types of Mankind” was created in 1854 by Josiah Clark Nott and George R.
Glidden in an effort to categorize race and create theories surrounding this topic. It was
developed out of enlightenment values, whereby flourishing scientists and philosophers had a
need for categorization and wished to impose reason onto certain subjects. This image began the
scientific descent into a need to separate race based upon discrete categories, where individuals
were given worth and value based on their membership in certain groups. It seems that our
society is still affected by such race based theories, except now individuals reference these
theories in relation to stereotypes, racist jokes, and negative commentary, further dividing
individuals from one another. The current “cancel” culture is shaped by the ideas of racial
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differences, whereby celebrities or other notable icons often make negative remarks rooted in
racial stereotypes and disparities. This photo is a concept worth fighting against, as this theory
that came directly out of the enlightenment era, a time where philosophers wanted to explore the
inner workings of mankind, has resulted in the broad divide between races in the twenty-first
century.
Slavery/anti-slavery
American Civil War 1861-1865 (Slavery abolished)
https://www.britannica.com/event/American-Civil-War
George Floyd Protests (2020) (Black man killed by white officer - causing a revolt)
https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/1595261/police-clashes.jpg
The movement towards anti-slavery and equity is something worth fighting for, whether it be in
the 1860’s or the 2020’s. These photos which depict the American Civil War and George Floyd
protests are directly similar in the feelings they provoke and the main theme they share, which is
demand for equality. These images depict how two groups are willing to go to war to defend the
way that they view the world. The image of the American Civil war captures the concept of both
slavery and anti-slavery, as the south and the north were of two different ideologies related to the
topic. In the 1860’s, people were willing to kill for their ideals or their cause, in defense of their
lifestyle and their societal perspective. While this scene is taken from the 1860’s, an individual
could argue that similar racial struggles, wars, or protests have occurred in recent years. If you
look at images from the Watts Riots in 1965, the Los Angeles Riots 1992, the Ferguson Riots in
2014, or most recently the George Floyd protests of 2020, a similar scene would be depicted.
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Innovation/industrialization/Anti-exploitation
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/25/is-capitalism-racist
This image was taken from the New Yorker and is part of an article entitled “Is Capitalism
Racist?”. In the image it shows a bus being driven by the elite in society, while there are two
lowly workers, notably people of color, working to keep the bus going. The idea behind this
image is that much of the industrialized workforce has been put upon the backs of people of
color, who were not given the same opportunities as their counterparts. This image depicts how
exploitation and industrialization often work hand in hand, profiting some at the expense of
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others. Currently, there is a major movement to end white supremacy in numerous professional
settings and areas of the workforce. The movement to diversify the workplace, and ensure that
individuals are being represented, no matter their racial background, is an attempt to end the
exploitation first established during the colonial period.
Anti-colonialism/exploration
NAACP Poster
https://cdn.kastatic.org/ka-perseus-images/a510ca9aa8643f518bf13d7df0f4490a3578a2ef.jpg
Critical Race Theory
https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/critical-race-theory-163110237
9.jpeg
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In the 1960’s, civil rights leaders were influenced by the anti-colonial trends they witnessed
around the world (*). In Nazi Germany, these civil rights leaders had witnessed how one
country’s war efforts to colonize and control all of Europe could negatively impact an entire
group of people. African Americans believed what had happened in Nazi Germany equated to
what was occuring in America with the Jim Crow laws. They wished to ‘decolonize’ the mindset
of fellow Americans in order to open up society and divest it from segregation laws. This was a
worthy fight, as decolonizing American’s mindsets was to try to gain civil rights of the average
Black citizen in America. There are very similar themes to this fight still happening in our
society today. Critical race theory was first devised in 1994, but was brought to light in our
society ever since the events of 2020, and is similar to the ideals set out by the NAACP poster.
Critical race theory believes that racism is embedded directly into the social constructs of our
society, into the businesses being run, the policies being set out, the unions that are established,
that literally it is everywhere, and needs to be actively fought against by every single citizen (**).
Both of these images illustrate how the anti-colonial spirit is an attempt to make society equal
and fair to its citizens.
(*)- reference
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-origins/era-7-the-great-convergence-and-diverge
nce-1880-ce-to-the-future/x23c41635548726c4:other-materials-origins-era-7/a/civil-rights-and-g
lobal-liberation
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(**)
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/
05
Economic/cultural exchange between civilizations
The Children’s Crusade 1965 (1000’s of black children took part in peaceful protests)
(https://cbsnews1.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/2013/05/02/ed7d9dc3-c3f8-11e2-a43e-02911869d855/Bir
mingham.jpg )
George Floyd
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZbLJ6IWsAEV9Bk?format=jpg&name=4096x4096
The Children’s Crusade was broadcast worldwide in 1963. One thousand school age students in
Birmingham, Alabama, decided to march for a cause worth fighting for, civil rights. They were
met with police resistance and violence, which was televised and reported on in newspapers.
Globally there was outcry from the horrific actions taken by the American police forces. The fact
that children were being attacked by police dogs, had fire hoses turned on them, and were being
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arrested in large numbers, awakened the conscience of numerous countries. This was such a
massive broadcast of the darker side of America, that even President John F. Kennedy had to
decry the actions of his own people. This was a major turning point in race relations and the civil
rights movement, as the cultural exchange of information between different nations opened the
eyes of the world to the need for equal rights for all. There are also certain current events that are
similar to the Children’s Crusade that have sparked outrage and global interest related to the need
for equality and racial tolerance. George Floyd’s murder, which gained viral views, ignited
outrage on a global scale, allowing more light to be shed upon this topic. The cultural exchange
of ideas, especially when these ideas impact the most vulnerable in our countries, has been
proven to be a major change maker that can help policies to be altered and societal perspectives
to shift.
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WORKS CITED
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