Black Journal: A Personal Look Backward

Let me begin by stating the obvious: images in U.S. media—not just images of Black people, but all images—are highly influenced by the political conditions of the times. Moreover, Black images have not been and still are not con­trolled by Black producers, and, therefore, these images were created to serve the psychic purposes of those that do control them. Because Europeans originally brought Africans here as slaves to provide service and labor and nothing more, the represen­tations of these slaves were used to rationalize and reinforce their intended place in society. Thus . . .