According to the introduction of the book “Seeing through Race” by John Berger, writes about how the media uses images where it shows how blacks are being victimized for whites to feel sympathy for them. However, sometimes the media is not telling the real story or portraying it differently. I agree with Berger, the media is used to bring sympathy to whites which can also lead to a movement. For example in George Floyd, we all knew that he died because a police officer was putting force on him causing him not to breathe and when this video was posted, it went viral and people started to protest to get rights.

According to “Seeing Through Race” By Martin Berger, he argues that the media that uses images of black Americans get more empathy from white viewers as opposed to them being united marching together protesting. I feel something in between. Although it’s good to include and show pictures of the long-standing harsh fight of oppression against Black Americans, but why when their united, protesting what’s wrong and standing up for civil justice together, it goes ignored. The media purpose is having an image and although they like to be diverse by giving recognition to minorities, they still manage their image regardless. Pictures showing violence and action, amuses people, it captivates them. We mostly hear about it in fictional books, or see it displayed on television, but when it’s happening, the media wants to show you it in its true form. It’s the same thing in advertising. They know exactly what’s going to make us read an article or click away to a headline. Pictures are messages and the more intense, the more emotions the viewer feels behind it. They still do this today in our current events as its effective in changing our society. It’s crucial to showcase the violence, because it will then just be silenced. The difference about racism back in the civil rights movement and today, is that racism in the present, is filmed. 

I can agree with Berger’s argument as he states, in his article that newspapers and social media only show African Americans as victims. I agree with him because yes I feel like protesters, social media only do to show compassion for them instead of showing what’s really going and letting the truth be told. As now it happened with the case of Floyd, you will see African Americans posted everywhere why because they actually got together and stood up. still, news, social media, will make it seem yes there are the victims but yet there’s no respect for them. The whites editors that allow this want to make their audience believes blacks are victims in the worst way to get more (whites) audience.

In the book of “Seeing through Race” Martin A. Berger lays out a reinterpretation of Civil rights photography related to the U.S Civil Rights era (1950s & 1960s). According to Berger, white press had full control of hiring the photographers, reporters and editors. This situation caused a big conflict on reflection of the true story. I strongly agree that whites are in charge of hiding the true story of brutalism and violence from the Civil Rights march.

        Media has always had a powerful influence on readers. Readers beliefs are highly dependent on how media presents the story. Even though, some of pictures show how white mobs acted aggressively towards black activists, those pictures were ignored by white media. Therefore, the truth wasn’t reached to all readers. Unfortunately, we are still facing the fact that blacks are being discriminated and treated like second class citizens now. Recently we had issues similar to these in 1965. The killing of George Floyd shows we didn’t make much progress on the equalization of human rights as the struggles of black Americans still remain. Furthermore, media publishes only black violence, not how white officers use their weapons or their authority on innocent black people. I believe that Black Lives Matter is a instrumental movement in order to open people’s eyes. I hope it will change control of the media to not only show a specific narrative but give everyone a fair chance to find the truth.

According to the book “Seeing through Race”, Berge argued that white editors were more likely to use photographs that featured black people as victims opposed to black people standing up for their rights. The News and social media are platforms are used for showing the people what is happing in today’s society however, sometimes these platforms advertise fake news. I agree with Berge because in today’s society for the BLM movement, George Floyd was the face of the movement; His story was all over the news, social media, etc. Showing black people as victims in today’s society makes white people feel more sympathetic in order to draw more media and news coverage. Another reason why I agree with Berge’s statement is because often the initial headlines are about what happened but not about the full story; the events leading up to the event. For example, the shooting of Breonna Taylor showed a black woman being shot by police breaking into her home and they painted Breonna as a victim. In reality, police officers shooted in self defense because Breonna’s boyfriend pulled a gun on police officers. Although this doesn’t justify what happen to Breonna Taylor, it is a prime example of how the media portrayed Breonna as a Victim and police officers as the “Bad Guys”.

During the 1950’s and 1960’s the media reported the news a little more restricted than what used to now. The media focus has been drawn towards racial violence within the African American community for example black violence or police brutality this storyline is constantly portrayed. Martin Berger explains how many newspapers and magazines editors notice that targeting the graphic realities of such communities had appealed more to the white reader. 

For society to continue advancing we need to clear balance between the positive and negative. The mainstream media need to highlight more positively within minorities instead of portraying only negative for it sets a certain stigma around POC that’s not necessarily appreciated.

In the introduction to his book, seeing through Race, Martin A. Berger argues that photographers and editors, especially white, are more likely to select photographs that portray white to black violence rather than peaceful marches and protect in order to draw more attention to the papers and gain more white supporters by making them feel secured. I agree that the media often depict the violence against blacks, such as the death to George Floyd, in order to draw sympathy from the readers, especially whites, because it makes them feel less concerned and threatened which motivates them to take interest and get involved.