Scene from Birth of a Nation

This coffee table tome is neither by Taschen nor is just for the table; it is meant to be examined for the cumulative testimony created during the 19th century. Taken primarily from the venerable Harper’s Weekly during the period of the American Civil War through Reconstruction, Overton reproduces images that helped shape Americans’ perceptions of ethnic groups. While many of the images by renowned illustrators such as Thomas Nast and Joel Chandler present exaggerated caricatures of black people, many of the images are more subtle and remain in use to this day. One need but read any daily edition of the Wall Street Journal to find articles that constantly link black people with only crime and poverty, or open one’s mail to find circulars that promote “the good ol’ days” by selling “free” civil war anniversary coins that celebrate the FIRST Battle of Bull Run.

No lesser authority than the Washington Post has recognized the problem, even if the vast majority of American news media has swept it back under the rug. In the 1974 book Of the press, by the press, for the press (And others, too), published by the Washington Post and Dell, Richard Harwood, in a memo dated 18 March 1971, noted that “[I]f we decide that the only ‘newsworthy’ facts about black people are facts about crime, public welfare and revolutionary rhetoric, we create a stereotype and deny the diversity of 20 million people.” It is a fact that has not been overlooked by the people who bring you Jerry Springer, MTV’s Real World and VH1’s Flavor of Love. Overton’s book is a massive endeavor that seeks to offer research into a peculiar problem by offering commentary, quotes and images from a narrow period. There are the rare instances where the burden seems to teeter (such as the spread that features a photo each of Liz Taylor and Snoop Dog; I was unable to understand the relation other than the two being popular celebrities), but that may be owed to his being intimately associated with the entertainment industry. Despite the one or two reservations,

The Media is a book that deserves its place among too few titles that have been published on the topic of news media and skin color.

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