Racial Segregation In American History
Racial segregation in U.S. schools and other public places was pertinent throughout most of American History and the majority of it existed in the South. School integration officially began in the mid 20th. The picture I have chosen to analyze portrays Mrs. Pinkston, a teacher in a newly integrated school in Oklahoma is enrolling students in the 3rd and 4th grades. She is standing in front of schoolbooks that she intends to hand out to the students that she is enrolling.
In this picture of Mrs. Pinkston enrolling the 4 children, it is clear that there is a vector that separates the white children and the black children. The way the photographer chose to place these children is important due to the fact that he is almost saying that you could
crop out the black children and the picture would be the same. Another thing to notice is the offer and demand of this picture. If one looks at the picture no one in the picture but the teacher is looking at the camera. If you look at the teacher, she has some sort of a smile on her face and if you look on the children’s faces you see frowns. This could insinuate that neither race is thrilled to be sharing a school with each other. At such a young and impressionable age it is hard to completely change the way you view certain things. This is single handedly one of the most important things I got from this picture. This is important because it shows that with such a big change it requires the cooperation of everyone involved for it to run smoothly.
A key term that fits the photograph is the term “us vs. them” from David Berreby’s article “It Takes a Tribe.” According to Berreby, us vs. them is a state of hostility towards a group that isn’t one’s own. In this photograph one could assume by the looks on the white children’s faces that they are being hostile towards the black children because the black children are in a school that once was all white. In this photograph the white children have an “us vs. them” mentality towards the black children because they are forced to cooperate with a new environment when their school becomes integrated. In the picture the photographer placed the children in groups based on their race and if one looks closely one can see that the children look unhappy.
In this picture of Mrs. Pinkston enrolling the 4 children, it is clear that there is a vector that separates the white children and the black children. The way the photographer chose to place these children is important due to the fact that he is almost saying that you could
crop out the black children and the picture would be the same. Another thing to notice is the offer and demand of this picture. If one looks at the picture no one in the picture but the teacher is looking at the camera. If you look at the teacher, she has some sort of a smile on her face and if you look on the children’s faces you see frowns. This could insinuate that neither race is thrilled to be sharing a school with each other. At such a young and impressionable age it is hard to completely change the way you view certain things. This is single handedly one of the most important things I got from this picture. This is important because it shows that with such a big change it requires the cooperation of everyone involved for it to run smoothly.
A key term that fits the photograph is the term “us vs. them” from David Berreby’s article “It Takes a Tribe.” According to Berreby, us vs. them is a state of hostility towards a group that isn’t one’s own. In this photograph one could assume by the looks on the white children’s faces that they are being hostile towards the black children because the black children are in a school that once was all white. In this photograph the white children have an “us vs. them” mentality towards the black children because they are forced to cooperate with a new environment when their school becomes integrated. In the picture the photographer placed the children in groups based on their race and if one looks closely one can see that the children look unhappy.