DINNER PARTY INTEL: Nat Geo accepts its role in propping up racism
1. Nat Geo accepts its role in propping up racism "For decades, our coverage was racist," says National Geographic, which has taken a reflective look at its past coverage of people of colour. "To rise above our past, we must acknowledge it," it says. The magazine asked African history professor Jason Mason to examine its history of covering people of colour in Australia, SA, the US and around the world. Editor Susan Goldberg says before the 1970s, its articles and photography "did little to push readers beyond the stereotypes ingrained in white American culture". It captured "natives" as "unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages — every type of cliché". Its coverage of SA in 1962 barely mentioned the 1960 Sharpeville massacre and apartheid, and Mason found it did not give a voice to black South Africans. "The only black people are doing exotic dances ... servants or workers. It’s bizarre, actually, to consider what the editors, writers and photographers had to consciously not see." 2...
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