WEBVTT - Pixel Power 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.520 Hey, y'all, Eve's here. I know you're ready to get 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:05.600 into this episode, but really quick. We have been loving 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:09.080 connecting with y'all over black storytelling, and if you've really 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:11.560 been loving the show, then we would really appreciate it 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:14.200 if you would leave us a rating and review, subscribe 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:15.920 to the show, and share it with your friends. 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:18.080 Thanks y'all. Now time for the episode. 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.920 On theme is a production of iHeartRadio and fair Weather 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:35.080 Friends Media. 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:47.760 Take my bit. 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:54.920 Okay, say cheese cheez. Let me see mm hm, I 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:55.760 like that. Try it again. 0:00:56.200 --> 0:01:01.279 Okay, okay, how about this one. I don't think it's 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:04.840 really capturing me, but you're literally right there though. 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.720 Me as in my essence what I want to say 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:09.160 to the world through my likeness me. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:12.880 Okay, So what do you want the picture to say? 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:17.720 I wanted to say, there she go, and she begin 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.800 to it when she goes, you. 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:22.560 Know, black people be saying a whole lot and they'll 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:23.840 be saying nothing. 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:25.479 But okay, I got it. 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:32.320 So let's try this again. See that's perfect. I'm Katie 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:33.200 and I'm Eves. 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.520 In today's episode, Pixel power. 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:47.000 Photos are always saying something A thousand somethings. As a 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:51.160 popular quote goes, and when photography and political movements mix, 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:56.240 maybe those pictures talk. So today on our show, we're 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:58.680 taking it back to the abolitionist movement and the anti 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:02.840 apartheid movement, looking through the viewfinder at specific ways photography 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.320 can be used for good and evil. 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.959 Act one, the most photographed man? 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.480 Who do you think is the most photographed man today? 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.120 So the first person that comes to mind for me 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.480 is Barack Obama, even though he's not president anymore, So 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.480 I guess the current president, So Joe Biden. 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.079 I guess you think photograph? 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:26.480 I don't because I feel like Obama had more photographs. 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:27.560 You know what I mean? Right? 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:29.040 Who wants to look at him? 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:32.160 Nobody? But my thing is the White House. 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:34.440 They have official photographers, So I say that the most 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:37.919 photograph because they're photographed on purpose. And obviously I'm thinking 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.639 an A and American centric way. So I'm thinking about 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.080 US federal government and I'm thinking about the office of 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:50.639 the president. So my first guess is Obama, and then 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:52.919 my second guess is just whoever the current president is, 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:57.600 which is now Biden? Wait, who do you think is 0:02:57.639 --> 0:02:59.080 the most photographed person today? 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.400 See, I would sink like maybe Kim Kardashian. 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:05.200 But then I was like, because people are like always 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.840 taking pictures, it literally could be just like a random 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.320 kid in Ohio to get about the pictures of themselves, 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.639 they take a million pictures of themselves. Like most photographed 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:14.280 person in the world. 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.320 Yeah, I guess I also didn't include like self photography. 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:18.720 I wasn't include selfies. 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:19.320 Yeah. 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:20.560 In my thinking on this. 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:22.600 Could literally be anybody. 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:24.920 So we were really trying to find out who's the 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:26.840 most narcissistic person in the world. 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:30.040 Well, you know, maybe most creative. Maybe they put no 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:34.640 shoots m h okay, that's a very diplomatic way to 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.320 put it. Yeah, with most folks carrying around a camera 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.000 at all times, it might be hard to know who 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.680 is the single most photographed person today, But that absolutely 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.160 was not the case in the eighteen hundreds. In the 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:49.600 nineteenth century, no American was photographed more than Frederick Douglas, 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.400 with more than one hundred and sixty known portraits. Douglas 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:56.280 had more pictures taken of him during his lifetime than 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:58.400 Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.000 And this was no accident. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.800 Douglas, an escaped slave who became a renowned abolitionist, and 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:08.120 author understood the power of photography and saw the revolutionary 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:12.640 technology as an avenue to challenge racists, caricatures and stereotypes 0:04:12.680 --> 0:04:15.600 about black people that were abundant in. 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.600 American visual culture. Eves, can you describe this photo of Douglas. 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.640 So it's a black and white photo, and Douglas is 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.280 kind of looking off into the side. He's dressed up 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.360 in nice clothes. He looks very stern, his lips are 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:34.320 kind of downturned. He's very seriously focused, and he looks like, 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:36.840 you know, he's about business, basically. 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.760 About his beasis. Truly. 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.279 Yeah, And for anyone who has ever cracked open a 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:44.880 US history book, the image Eve's described is floating in 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.840 your head right now, partly because he took a lot 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.760 of his pictures like this. By posing for these portraits, 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.720 Douglas presented the world with an image of a dignified, 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.080 well dressed black man, a stark contrast to the degrading 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.279 to pictures that were common, and he carefully curated this 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:05.600 public image, ensuring he was always well groomed, always dressed formally, 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.160 and always projecting an air a sophistication. 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.839 If you listen to our past episodes, Bona fide blackface 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.160 or we might regret this episode later. You'll recall that 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:19.800 American media often depicted black people as silly, simple folks, 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:21.400 just their fault white folk's amusement. 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:23.000 But Douglas troubled that notion. 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.080 He once said he never wanted to look like a happy, amiable, 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:27.200 fugitive slave. 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:33.200 He a statement, why are he bagging? 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.200 Why is he bagging on slaves like that they can 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:36.719 be happy? 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:38.080 Well, I think. 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:42.240 The thing is like, no one really looked like that. Yeah, 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:45.039 it was there putting out like nobody was looking like that. Yeah, 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:46.479 but he was like, let me make sure I don't 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:48.799 look like that. I ain't gonna smile. I'm not gonna 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.080 crack a one smile. And it's shit funny. 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.800 It's just funny as an isolated sentiment to be like 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:55.400 taking it out of context like that. 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.919 Yeah, his photos, they were confrontational. The stirred eyes that 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:02.000 you mentioned, the unsmiling mouth, the playing background. A lot 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.080 of his pictures ain't no little Doiley's in the back. 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.240 He's like, keep your eyes on me, on my face, 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.200 and he described it as the face of the fugitive slave. 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.120 Douglas was well aware of the importance of controlling his 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.120 image and as a famous writer and orator. He used 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:20.040 his photographs to gain subscribers for his abolitionist newspaper, The 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:22.719 North Star, and he would also hand out pictures of 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.840 himself along with his letters, speeches and essays. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:30.240 He saw photography as quote the most democratic of the arts. 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.280 In a lecture he delivered in Boston in eighteen sixty one, 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:34.799 he said, what. 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.239 Was once the exclusive luxury of the rich and great 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.679 is now within reach of all the humblest servant. Girl 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:43.720 whose income is but a few shillings per week may 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:47.239 now possess a more perfect likeness of herself the noble 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:51.160 ladies and even royalty with all its precious treasures, could 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:53.039 purchase fifty years ago. 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.920 Yeah, so basically just saying how photography really kind of 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.800 even the playing field in his eyes is interesting to me. 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.800 And the reason why photography got really accessible during this 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:04.839 time is because the picture used to be printed on metal, 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.400 and it used it switched to being printed on paper, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:09.960 and of course paper was like more abundant and easier 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.600 to print on. But I really thought it's interesting to 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.400 call it the most democratic of the arts, as someone 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:18.200 who used to be enslaved like slavery is like the 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.840 very antithesis of democracy, you know, and so him seeing 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:26.320 photography as like the antithesis in a way of slavery, 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:28.960 and like he's able to put his image out there 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:33.640 and really change people's minds based on his image, Like 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:37.280 he like looked so serious and so dignified. People were like, 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:40.480 he's lying. He wasn't even a slave before. People didn't 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.120 believe it because his image that he put out. He 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.320 had the newspaper and he was going around writing these speeches, 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.720 like giving these speeches. People were like, ain't no way 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.320 because of the images that we see, you know, like 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:53.240 the minstrel shows, like that's what a slave is. 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.640 So I was like, he ate that. He really ate 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:58.280 that description. What did you think of it? 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.280 Well, I have a question for you, which is that 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:03.720 I'm curious about your take on who his intended audience 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:08.240 was for in his thinking around like presenting himself in 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:10.920 this way. Was it for other black people to be 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.240 like this is who you are, this is who you 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.320 really are and you can see yourself this way. 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.520 Or was it for non black people? I think it 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:17.920 was both. 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:20.320 So, like in the quote where he's talking about like 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:23.280 the humble servant girl being able to see herself because 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:24.760 like you know how they say the camera don't lie 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.000 a little timpanals or something, but they gonna lie. It's 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.040 gonna show you what you like really look like. And 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.120 if you have people like always saying like you're subhuman, 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.000 like you're not as good as me, like you're you know, 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.240 an animal really, and then you look at this image 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:40.559 and you're like, wait a minute, I'm not who they 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.559 said I was. And they also can see this black 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.440 man who is very black, you know, like you know 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:48.520 sometimes people be back in the days for saying they black, 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.680 but they like, you know, one sixteenth black, but this 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:55.360 man black, Okay, like ain't no question. So like they 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.640 can see this black man and be like, oh, like 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.000 he has this picture, he's like dressing these nice clothes, 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:01.840 he's like giving all these lectures. 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:03.920 So I definitely think it was for black people. 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.320 But then also when people were wanting to know about 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:09.240 abolition and you know, what should we do as a country, 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.640 people were coming to him people, you know, as powerful 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:14.400 as a president of the United States, he was advising 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:19.280 Abraham Lincoln. When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, he 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:24.040 was like very well read, well written, well spoken, and 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.880 well photographed. He had the most photographs out, so I 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.000 think it was twofold. And so, like you said, he 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.320 had the North Star and that was a way to 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:33.480 get the message out, and he was printing his picture 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:37.000 in there every time, like hey, like this is an 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.719 abolitions newspaper. These are our thoughts about anti slavery. This 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:42.400 is what it would look like. This is what would 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.480 happened going forward, like really laying out the cause, like 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.839 the moral objections and just laying it out for people 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.160 to be able to read. And like you know, newspapers 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.160 they just popping back then he puts up a newspaper. 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:54.760 Now maybe people did even read it, but people's reading 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.880 those newspapers listening to his speeches. He was handing out 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:02.960 little cars of his picture like yeah. Henry Lewis Gates 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:05.480 called him like the social media influencer of his day, 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.360 and I was like, that's really true, because he was 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.640 using a relatively new technology to get his message out 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.720 and like spread you know, his own propaganda, which was 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:15.880 anti slavery. 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:18.440 And he does look serious in the photo, but it 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.600 does also strike me as a very artistically composed photo 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.120 as well. This one that I'm looking at and described 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.080 earlier of him looking off into the side. There's just 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:31.640 something about it that seems pretty thoughtfully composed, and it 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:33.719 makes me think about our previous episode in which we 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:36.240 talked about James Vandersey and his death portraits and this 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.120 being kind of like something that preceded that, Like, this 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.720 is James Vandersey used his portraits to talk about death, 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.320 and this is about life. This is about what kind 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.720 of lives black people had in the truth and authenticity of. 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:49.960 What black life looked like. 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:54.079 And Frederick Douglass showed that through his photos without having 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.720 to say it, because a statement of it being the 0:10:56.760 --> 0:11:00.120 most democratic of the arts is very telling when and 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.680 there are so many other arts that Black people did 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:07.680 express themselves through, a really big one of them being writing, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.560 and a lot of people didn't have access to that though, 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:12.640 so a lot of people weren't able to read or 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.079 weren't able to write back in that time. 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.720 Yeah, this photograph is like telling a story, even if 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:22.920 you're illiterate exactly. And going back to your question about 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.959 if he was targeting black people or white people, he 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.360 also was a big recruiter for the Union Army former 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.120 slaves or I think maybe even they were still slaves, 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.760 but yeah, to join the Union Army and fight the 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:37.400 Confederacy did the Civil War, and he was able to 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.840 use that like this for people who you know, might 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:43.160 not have access to the North Star but can see 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:45.560 his picture or like, oh, this man says we should 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.680 like join and fight, and like giving people the idea 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:52.160 the abolition is possible, you know. So he was really 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.760 like firing on all cylinders truly. But I think like 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.320 a lot of scholars call him like the father of 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:00.080 the Civil rights movement, and we see a lot of 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:04.520 his tactics and movements current movements now. Like when you 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:06.280 look back at the Civil Rights movement, a lot of 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.040 things you're looking at is pictures. Right, So on Bloody 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:13.760 Sunday when John Lewis crossed that Edmund Pettis Bridge, people 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.840 saw the images of the dogs getting sticked on people 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.360 and the water hoses knocking people down, and that's put 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.280 on TV and you know, you can write your letter 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:26.480 from the Birmingham jail and stuff like that, but those 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:29.559 images hit different. And I think Frederick Douglas was kind 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:31.679 of one of the maybe not first, but one of 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.960 the most prominent people to say, like the opress can 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.559 show these images and like change things. And you see 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:40.800 that in the civil rights movement, see in the Black 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.120 Lives Matter movement, And I think now even in like Palestine, 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:48.640 we're getting like terrible images coming from Palestine. And the 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.199 thing that's kind of different with Palestine is like you're 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.480 seeing these images and we're like what the fuck? And 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.559 then the powers at b are just like whatever. 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.240 You know, we're inundated with so many of them that 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.520 it's become easier to be desensitized. 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:06.480 I don't think we're desensitized. I think the ruling class 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.120 just doesn't give a fuck about Palestinians, right, And so 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.360 it's like we're used to saying like, oh, we're seeing 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.080 these horrible images and they're telling the truth. So things 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.160 need to change because we've seen that going all the 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.400 way back from abolition, But now with Paleside is like 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:19.040 not happening. 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:21.480 So when I say we, I don't mean necessarily me 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.160 and you and people who we know are pro Palestine. 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:26.520 But I do think there is a general public outside 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.439 of the ruling class that is in denial purposeful denial 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.960 as well, because just think about all the people I 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.080 mean holocaust deniers going to that, I mean everything, like 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.880 people who deny atrocities that happen in the world. People 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:40.480 turn a blind eye to it a lot of the 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:42.600 time and say, these things are happening, but are they 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:44.760 really happening, like people who're saying they were like actors 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.079 in Sandy Hook. You know, just whenever atrocities come up, 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:51.000 there are always regular people, including poor people, including people 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.000 who are not part of the ruling class, who are like, 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:55.599 you know, they see all of this in front of 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:57.760 their face and like there's they use some sort of 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.360 excuse to be like, yeah, it's not really happy happening. 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.240 In many ways, Douglas was ahead of his time in 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:08.080 recognizing the profound impact that photography could have on public 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.600 perception and national consciousness. 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.719 His photos radiated dignity and authority, characteristics denied to those 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.320 who had been enslaved, and his extensive photographic archive is 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:24.360 a testament to the transformative power of the camera to humanize, educate, 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:25.480 and inspire. 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.160 Next, we're traveling between Massachusetts and South Africa to hear 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:33.800 about how two Polaroid employees contributed to the fall of apartheid. 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:51.560 That's after the Break Act two, the Polaroid protest. 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.880 I wanted to include the Polaroid protest in this episode 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.840 because one unlike Frederick Douglas, I hadn't known about it 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.720 until recently. And that could just be a function of 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.120 our US focus educational system, but it also could be 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:07.120 because it gives a great blueprint for how we can 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.560 affect change today when it comes to corporations participating in oppression. 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:15.080 Yeah, it's a powerful story that really highlights the transformative 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.200 potential of worker led activism. 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:18.920 So let's get into it. 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.880 In nineteen seventy two, African American Polaroid employees Caroline Hunter 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:29.000 and Ken Williams made a shocking discovery that Polaroid's products 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:31.920 were being used by the South African government to create 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.760 ID past books for black South Africans as part of 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:39.040 the oppressive apartheid system. Here's Caroline Hunter describing how she 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:40.920 and Ken Williams made that discovery. 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:43.480 It was really a fluke. 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:46.280 Ken and I were going out to lunch and as 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.520 we passed through the workplace on our way out, we 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.880 saw an ID badge MAYFA, South Africa. We looked at 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.080 it and began to say to each other, we didn't 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:57.600 know Polaroid was in South Africa. 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.560 In response to finding out that their employer's products were 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.320 being used to oppress black South Africans, Caroline and Ken 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:10.760 formed the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement, or the PRWM, and 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.320 they issued three bold demands to Polaroid on October eighth, 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:19.680 nineteen seventy One, that Polaroid announced a policy of complete 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:24.160 disengagement from South Africa since all American companies doing business 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.840 in South Africa reinforced that racist system and its government. 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:32.120 Two that Polaroid have its management meet with the entire 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.280 company to discuss this policy and announce his position on 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.640 apartheid publicly in the USA and in South Africa simultaneously. 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:45.640 Three that if Polaroid company is sincereness opposition to apartheid, 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.920 we call upon it to contribute the profits earned. 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.080 This was an unprecedented move At the time. It was 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:54.800 the norm for corporations to uphold racist regimes through their 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:58.520 products and for employees and customers to say nothing, but 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:04.320 not the PRWM. The PRWN organized a protest of about 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.560 two hundred people at polaroids headquarters at Cambridge, Massachusetts, bringing 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.480 their message directly to the company, and after a Polaroid 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.199 refused to meet with at PRWM. They called for a 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.879 worldwide boycott of Polaroid products by all Right On Thinking 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.280 People on October twenty seventh and a fly release by 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:23.560 the group. They explained their reasoning for the boycott. 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:27.320 Polaroid sells its ID two system to the South African 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:32.560 government to make the notorious pastbook pictures Polaroid imprisons black people. 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:34.920 In just sixty seconds. 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:37.640 Here's Caroline Hunter again explaining that ethos behind their fight 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:39.240 for black South Africans. 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:42.920 We really had some sense that no one's free unless 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:46.119 everybody's free, and that we had some relationship to black 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:49.399 people everywhere, and as workers, we had a right to 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.720 say what happened to our labor. So we started off 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.080 just asking the question, what is Polaroid doing in South Africa. 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.439 In response to the prwm's question asking and demand making, 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.960 Polaroid sent a delegation to South Africa and announced the 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.680 Polaroid Experiment. In the experiment, Polaroid would ban sales to 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.280 the government, raised wages, and increased job training for black workers. 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.840 But PRWM saw the Polaroid experiment for what it was, 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.640 a disingenuous attempt to continue profiting from apartheid. And quel 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:21.679 discent among workers. Caroline Hunter and Ken Williams also testified 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.800 before the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid advocating for 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.360 a boycott of Polaroid. This puts significant pressure on Polaroid 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:30.880 to respond to the worker's demands. 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:35.119 Caroline Hunter and Kim Williams were fired from Polaroid for 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:36.400 their activism, but. 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:40.600 The PRWM continued and after seven years of protest, Polaroid 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.480 finally withdrew from South Africa in nineteen seventy seven, ending 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:47.920 its business ties with the apartheid regime. The Polaroid workers 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.760 activism is seen as pioneering in the corporate divestment movement 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.280 against apartheid After the break, how we can use the 0:18:55.280 --> 0:19:04.760 Polaroid protests as a blueprint for movement work today? 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:08.800 You mentioned earlier that you saw this protest as like 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.040 a blueprint for how we can affect change today. 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:13.000 What exactly do you mean by that? 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.639 I think in a capitalistic society, protests that come for 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.879 your oppressor's capital are more effective than the ones that 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:23.920 appeal to their morals because they simply don't have any 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:26.760 I found this leaflet that the African Research Group put 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:29.159 out about the Polaroid protests as they were going on 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.600 in the seventies, and I think they explained best. Arg 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:35.800 thinks that the brave action taken by these workers is 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.600 the most important movement now going on in the US 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.320 about South Africa. The workers are making demands that strike 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:46.359 at the economic roots of apartheid, rather than bemoaning the 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:50.359 inhuman conditions that the system inflicts. They are revolutionary black 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:54.880 workers struggling against imperialist oppression and winning their own liberation. 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:58.760 It goes on to say Polaroid is an ideal target. 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:01.879 It is a well known LIB company which disguises its 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:05.720 support for South Africa in pseudo humanistic rhetoric. It knows 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:08.400 that a victory against them will hurt not only them, 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:12.480 but other US and peeriless companies as well. Defeating Polaroid 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.760 provides an important starting point an example for similar struggles 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:20.040 against other companies. It undermines their mystifying ideology and strikes 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:23.639 a blow at their economic well being. Polaroid is only 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.600 the beginning, and I wanted to include this because storytelling 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:29.560 is kind of like a neutral tool. It could be 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:31.520 used for good, it could be used for evil. So 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.880 in the case of South Africa, Polaroid was using photography 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.320 for evil, like the story that they were telling about 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.080 black South Africans, or that they were a criminal, they 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.239 were second class citizens, if citizens at all, you know, 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:48.240 that they deserve to be monitored and like really restricting 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:52.000 their freedom of movement. And then the story that Caroline 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.320 and Ken got from that when they just happened to 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.399 see that picture, which I'm so glad they did imagine 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:00.879 if they are head were like turn and that the 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.240 other way, like this protest might not even happen or 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.719 might have happened years later, but they saw that and 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:09.480 like took that information that like Polaroid is like telling 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:12.159