Lazy America

Lazy America

Keim is able to show us how ignorant and lazy we are when it comes to learning about others. He shows us this by allowing us to see how America has used media to distort and create stereotypes about other countries, specifically Africa. In the reviewer Cyril Daddieh opinion, they feel the exact same way. They state " The book reconstructs the genesis and evolution of some of the most pervasive as well as pernicious myths and stereotypes". Keim then goes on about how we believe that Africans all live in huts, they are savages, and that basically they are not civilized (pg. 4-5).

For example In chapter ten Keim is able to show how ignorant we really are when it comes to reproducing images of Africa. He gives us ten images that were made in America, and we are asked to analyze them, and then read the caption. Daddieh speaks on this as well. He states "the exercise allows readers to confront the subliminal messages and codes embedded in the ads". I agree with Keim with the different images , what I disagree with is that he only showed examples of how Africa is distorted in America. I believe their are other people or organizations out there creating images that are for the good of Africa. I just think he should have put other good examples.

Daddieh goes on to talk about the lack of knowledge, that we have about Africa. He states that even the people that we get our material from, will lack the truth. I can speak on that, as far as the education I had received on Africa. Most of that information came from the television or any research that I did on my own time. The information that I did receive from the school system was always negative ( slaves, diseases). Other sources of education like the television also sometimes give us the half truth. Keim goes on to talk about how the national geographic channel/ magazines do intend to portray Africans in stereotypical ways, yet they still manage to do it.

Something else that stood out to me was the amusement park adaptions. As a kid I never realized the theme of Bush Gardens, but after reading and hearing the myth behind the place, it just shows how much I have been influenced by my surroundings. I think about all of the kids who go to this amusement park every year, and are greatly influenced. We are the ones that create those images, and places that Keim speaks about. We are the ones that allow the next generation to be ignorant.

I agree with Keim when he states "Anyone who wants to study Africa in depth needs to learn the language". If we want to become more knowledgable about Africa we have to submerge ourselves into the culture. This could mean going to live there for a couple of months, surrounding ourselves around the people, or even just doing our know research (thus putting down the tv remote).