Enforcing Racial Discrimination Essay

The series of photographs documented by the Farm Security Administration of the Office of War Information photographers were taken between 1937 and 1943, presumably during the years the unit was in operation. These photographers were tasked to document various manifestations of change and continuity in the prevalent American life, and this resulted in a vivid collection of images that particularly focused on the practice of racial segregation. Curiously, while the photographers were not officially acknowledged to have been directed to document specific scenes, the prints produced exhibited a skew toward signs that indicate racial discrimination and segregation (LOC 2004). Among the thirty-one photos included in the series, all depict signs situated in a number of locations such as bus and train stations, restaurants, cafes, bars, movie theaters, stores, and billiard halls. These signs also collectively show the use of words such as â€Å"colored† and â€Å"white’, which clearly validate the existence of segregation between Caucasian Americans and individuals of ethnic origins such as blacks and Indians. True to the era during which they were photographed, the environment and people incidentally present in each picture appear in authentic manners of architecture and fashion. II. Racial Segregation in America The issue on race and discrimination in America can be famously traced centuries back, with the history of Africans being brought into the country as slaves. Though this deplorable condition had been corrected by the gains of the Civil War, thus granting freedom to blacks. However, the occurrence of the Great Depression in the 1920s brought back situations identical to those experienced by African-Americans previously, as the country was beset by the chaos produced by the lack of jobs and sources of income. In 1932, most blacks found themselves without work, and there was increasing pressure from whites to have blacks fired from any job that they believed should be assigned to unemployed whites. Numerous forms of racial violence again ensued, particularly in the South, during the 1930s (LOC 2002). The legal foundation of racial segregation was the Jim Crow laws, which were imposed in the 1860s mainly in railroad cars, and continued to be enforced throughout the decades until the 1960s (McElrath 2008). The effects of segregation on typical American life and society were apparently significant enough to create scenes extraordinary enough to tell their own stories through photographs, which were precisely what the Farm Security collection achieved. III. Beyond the Signs: Marking the Lines of Race The objective of the Farm Security photographs had been to depict regular American life, yet it is clear how the typicality of the images at the time does not lend itself in the same nature today. There is a point of discussion in the deliberate move to show not just groups of whites and ethnic people, but the centering on the signs that limit freedom, that erase the function of choice. The study of signs, known as semiotics, provides the connection between the audience, interpreter, and the sign itself (Littlejohn 2008). The photos, with their studied involvement of the actual sign, venue, and individuals, already form the three-part process; the blacks are the audience and the photographer is the interpreter, within the space covered by the sign. This shows how the photographers aimed to convey a reality, a system that used semiotics as a way to impose discrimination. This they had done with not just a bit of participation on their end, quite like the way Coles (1997) appropriated documentary work with the linking of lives with the subject. The same logic is utilized by Gripsrud (in Gillespie and Toynbee 2006), when he classified a photographer’s work as indexical—the identifying of a specific aspect of a subject—and therefore lends to much subjectivity. IV. Showing Signs of Racial Conflict to an Audience While the audience of the signs were the blacks—and whites, depending on the sign and situation—the photos’ audience are people who would benefit from knowledge of a different period, as was the arguable objective of the Farm Security photographers in documenting change and continuity in American life. Mainly, the photos were for research and evaluation, whether or not the audience would find them appalling or give them their approval. It may be possible that some of those who comprise the audience are people who have lived through the same era, making them mere confirmations of what they already know; but the more relevant audience would be the uninformed, who would find new insight into American society and its management of racial issues in the late 1930s and early 40s. V. Appropriation of Technique and Style in Communicating Racism The black-and-white photography is already significant on its own, referring to the subjects as well; seeing words on the signs captured in the photographs deals a double blow—‘black’, or ‘colored’, and ‘white’ signs in black-and-white photos. The photographers simply captured the signs as they were, specially for those in venues without people milling around, but there were also photos that provided degrees of humanity and emotion. One of the most striking is a photo of a bar showing whites having beer, a sign on the wall above them that says â€Å"Positively no beer sold to Indians†. Though Indians are known for their penchant for alcohol, it is disturbing one clear sign can show how this ethnic group is singled out and discriminated against—an error of generalization. The white people in the photo appear serious and quite professional, which indicates how the sign should not be misconstrued as a joke. Other photos in the collection, though showing signs and places rather than people as subjects, reveal the increasing culture of urbanization—shown by the railroads, buses, and stores where the signs are found. Urbanization, being common ground for both blacks and whites, necessitates signs; these indicate white control over society and economy, and the intent to keep ‘colored’ people away from this power. Works Cited Primary Source: Library of Congress. â€Å"Photographs of Signs Enforcing Racial Discrimination: Documentation by Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Photographers†. Prints & Photographs Reading Room. April 30, 2004. Secondary Sources: Coles, Robert. â€Å"The Tradition: Fact and Fiction†. Doing Documentary Work. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Gripsrud, Jostein. â€Å"Semiotics: signs, codes and cultures†. In Gillespie, Marie and Jason Toynbee. Analysing Media Texts. Berkshire: Open University Press, 2006. Library of Congress. â€Å"Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945: Race Relations in the 1930s and 1940s†. 2002. McElrath, Jessica. â€Å"Creation of Jim Crow South: Segregation in the South†. About. com. 2008.