Visualizing Everyday Racism: Critical Race Theory and Visual Microaggressions

• In Event: Critical Race Visual Methodologies: Extending Antiracist Tools for Social Justice Educators

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to further develop the conceptual framework of visual microaggressions to understand and analyze everyday visual imagery seen within and outside of education that conveys racist perceptions and/or beliefs about People of Color based on a range of actual or perceived characteristics. To conduct a more focused study of visual microaggressions, we examine specifically how visual racism targets Latinas/os in print media, advertising, and children’s books.

Theoretical Perspective
To expose the visual forms of racism that target Latinas/os, our theoretical framework begins with critical race theory (CRT) and in particular, LatCrit (a branch of CRT). These are powerful frameworks that expose the multiple, intersecting forms of oppression that mediate the experiences of Latinas/os (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001). Racist nativism is a further framework developed from LatCrit that, 1) occurs within a historical and contemporary context, 2) intersects with other forms of oppression and, 3) is based on real and perceived immigration status (Pérez Huber et. al., 2008). Racist nativism can be used as a tool to explain the racism that emerges in visual portrayals of Latinas/os. Finally, we use the conceptual framework of racial microaggressions as the systemic, everyday forms of racism that are often subtle, layered, and cumulative assaults against People of Color, committed automatically and unconsciously surname (Kohil & Solórzano, 2011).

Data Sources
The data in this study consists of visual images collected in print media (i.e. newspapers, magazines), advertising (i.e. billboards, posters), and books (children’s fiction) over the course of a 43-year period, from 1970 to present. We will utilize a representative sample of four images from each of these visual mediums across this time period for this presentation.

Methods
We analyze this representative sample using a structural racial microaggressions analysis model that articulates how these everyday racist assaults are intrinsically connected and mediated by institutional racism and white supremacy (Pérez Huber & Solórzano, under review).

Results & Significance
Our visual analysis revealed a predominant portrayal of Latinas/os as the “Mexican bandit,” a stereotype that has been examined extensively within film studies (Ramírez Berg, 2002; Noriega, 1992). The analysis reveals that across time, the “Mexican bandit” stereotype has changed form, but continues to persist in visual portrayals of Latinas/os. We found racist nativist discourses that allow for the discursive constructions of Latinas/os as criminal, dangerous and non-native to be the institutional racism that supports this visual microaggression. Finally, we found ideologies of white supremacy to support the (re)production of such racist nativist discourses that justify these visual microaggressions. This study is significant because it demonstrates how everyday visual forms of racism are connected to systemic, structural processes underlined by white supremacy that impact the public imagination of Latina/o communities, from youth to adults. We provide recommendations that draw from arts education on how to use visual data to engage early discussions of race in classrooms, providing youth with tools to confront the visual microaggressions they most certainly will encounter during their lifetimes.

Authors

• Lindsay Perez Huber, California State University - Long Beach

• Daniel Gilbert Solorzano, University of California - Los Angeles