National Geographic Acknowledges Its Racist Past Coverage
“Through most of its history, National Geographic, in words
and images, reproduced a racial hierarchy with brown and black people at the bottom, and white people at the top,” Mr. Mason said in an interview on Tuesday.
To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It.”
Written by Susan Goldberg, the editor in chief, the note acknowledges
that “it hurts to share the appalling stories from the magazine’s past.” It includes some of the most blatant examples of racism, including a 1916 story about Australia that included the photo caption: “South Australian Blackfellows: These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings.”
Ms. Goldberg said in an interview on Tuesday that the magazine was proud of its history of opening eyes to new places
and cultures, and of the way the publication has grown in recent decades.
Mr. Lewis praised National Geographic’s overall effort, but said he was disappointed
that the cover — the most recognizable image for an issue dedicated to race — was shot by a white man, Robin Hammond.
And that image, which persisted until the 1970s, shaped how the magazine’s readers — largely white and middle class — perceived black people, he said.
So they asked John Edwin Mason, a University of Virginia professor who studies the history of Africa
and photography, to dig through the magazine’s archives to examine its shortcomings in covering people of color in the United States and abroad.