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LOCAL CONTEXT; RACISM

IN 2014 A NOW CONTROVERSIAL STATUE OF THE FORMER BAILIFF AND LT-GOVERNOR OF JERSEY, SIR GEROGE CARTERET WAS PROUDLY UNVEILED IN ST PETER. IT WAS SAID THAT SIR GEORGE CARTERET WAS A ROLE MODEL FOR YOUNGSTERS AND THAT HE SHOULD BE RECOGNISED LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY.

HOWEVER, IT HAS RECENTLY COME TO LIGHT THAT CARTERET WAS ON OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE ‘COMPANY OF ROYAL ADVENTURES INTO AFRICA’. THIS COMPANY WAS SET UP TO TRADE IN IVORY, GOLD AND SLAVES, BUILDING 18 STONE FORTS AS TRADING BASES IN AFRICA. BY THE TIME HE HAD LEFT, IT IS SAID THAT HE HAD SOLD 155 MEN, 105 WOMEN AND 22 BOYS.

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A FEW OF OUR RESIDENTS IN JERSEY HISTORICALLY OWNED SLAVES ALSO. BY 1833 THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE CAME INTO PLACE, FREEING OVER 800,000 SLAVES THAT WERE OWNED BY BRITISH PEOPLE. COMPENSATION WAS ODDLY PAID BY THE UK GOVERNMENT TO THE SLAVE TRADERS AND THERE ARE RECORDS TO SHOW THIS. BELOW ARE SOME RESIDENTS OF JERSEY WHO HAD SLAVES:

JOHN CAMERON (8 ST MARK’S TERRACE, ST MARK’S ROAD, ST HELIER) – AWARDED COMPENSATION OF £30,136 IN 1836 FOR HIS OWNING OF 574 SLAVES IN BRITISH GUIANA.

JOHN WILSON CARMICHAEL – AWARDED £981 IN COMPENSATION FOR 22 SLAVES IN TRINIDAD.

OLIVE MACKESON – AWRARDED £2,446 FOR THE OWNERSHIP OF 132 SLAVES.

THOMAS AND EMMA REIGNOLDS – AWARDED £2,660 FOR THE OWNERSHIP OF 147 SLAVES.

CAROLINE ATKINSON (SALVANDY TERRACE, ST SAVIOUR) – AWARDED £6,810 FOR THE OWNDERSHIP OF 360 SLAVES IN JAMAICA.

EDWARD WELCH EVRESLY (HAVRE DES PAS) – COMPENSATED £102 FOR THE OWNERSHIP OF 9 SLAVES.

THE LIST CONTINUES. THERE IS ALSO A TOTAL ESTIMATE OF £7,546,000 LINKED TO JERSEY THROUGH SLAVE TRADE COMPENSATION.

COLONIALISM; SLAVE TRADE

COLONIALISM IS THE POLICY OR PRACTICE OF ACQUIRING FULL OR PARTIAL POLITICAL CONTROL OVER ANOTHER COUNTRY, OCCUPYING IT WITH SETTLERS, AND EXPLOITING IT ECONOMICALLY.

It's wrong to say that European colonialism was an exceptional ...

IDEAS OF AFRICANS AS INFERIOR CAN BE TRACED BACK TO THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE 18TH CENTURY, WHICH INVOLVED COLONIALISM. AFRICA IN FACT HAS A HISTORY AND A LEGACY OF COLONIALISM.

BETWEEN THE 1870’S AND THE 1900’S, AFRICA FACES EUROPEAN AND IMPEPRIALIST AGGRESSION, DIPLOMATIC PRESSURES, MILITARY INVASIONS AND EVENTUAL CONQUEST AND COLONIZATION. YET, AT THE SAME TIME THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA TRIED THEIR ABSOLUTE HARDEST AND TRIED TO RESIST AGAINST THE ATTEMPT TO COLONIZE THEIR COUNTRIES AND IMPOSE FOREIGN DOMINATION. BY THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY HOWEVER, MUCH OF AFRICA HAD BEEN COLONIZED BY EUROPEAN POWERS.

THIS CONOLIZATION WAS MOTIVATED BY THREE MAIN FACTORS: ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL. IT DEVELOPED IN THE 19TH CENTURY DUE TO THE COLLAPSE OF THE PROFABILITY OF THE SLAVE TRADE, ITS ABOLITION AND SUPPRESSION, AS WELL AS THE EXPANSION OF THE ERUOPEAN AND CAPALST INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. THE DEMAND FOR ASSURED SOURCES OF RAW MATERIALS, THE SEARCH FOR GUARANTEED MARKETS AND PROFITABLE INVESTMENT OUTLETS SPURRED THE EUROPEAN SCRAMBLE AND THE EVENTUAL CONQUEST OF AFRICA. THEREFORE, THE PRIMARY MOTIVATION FOR THE COLONIZATION OF AFRICA WAS ECONOMIC.

HOWEVER, AT THE TIME, OTHER REASONS PLAYED A ROLE IN THE COLONIZATION OF AFRICA. BRITAIN, FRANCE, ITALY, SPAIN, GERMANY, PORTUGAL ETC WERE ALL COMPETING FOR POWER WITHIN EUROPEAN POLITICS. ONE WAY TO DEMONSTRATE NATIONAL POWER WAS THROUGH THE ACQUISITION OF TERRETORIES AROUND THE WORLD, INCLUDING AFRICA.

THE SOCIAL FACTOR WAS THE THIRD MAJOR ELEMENT THAT HAD A PART TO PLAY IN THE COLONIZATION OF AFRICA. AS A RESULT OF INDUSTIRALIZATION, MAJOT SOCIAL PROBLEMS GREW WITHIN EUROPE SUCH AS UNEMPLOYMENT, POVERTY, HOMELESSNESS ETC. ONE WAY TO RESOLVE THIS ISSUE WITHIN EUROPE WAS TO ACQUIRE COLONIES AND EXPLORE THIS “SURPLUS POPULATION”. THIS LED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SETTLER COLONIES IN ALGERIA, TUNISIA, SOUTH AFRICA, NAMIBIA, ANGOLA, MOZAMBIQUE ETC.

The impact of colonialism on African languages - Speak Africa

GLOBAL CONTEXT; RACISM

THE ACTUAL DEFINITION OF RACISM IS: PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION, OR ANTAGONISM DIRECTED AGAINST A PERSON OR PEOPLE ON THE BASIS OF THEIR MEMBERSHIP OF A PARTICULAR RACIAL OR ETHNIC GROUP, TYPICALLY ONE THAT IS A MINORITY OR MARGINALIZED.

A SIMILAR DEFINITION IS THE BELIEF THAT DIFFERENT RACES POSSESS DISTINCT CHARACTERISTICS, ABILITIES OR QUALITIES, ESPECIALLY SO AS TO DISTINGUISH THEM AS INFERIOR OR SUPERIOR TO ONE ANOTHER.

RACISM CAN AFFECT ANYONE AT ANY AGE, ANY RACE, ANY ETHNICITY.

RACISM CAN MANIFEST ITSELF ITO MANY DIFFERENT VARIATIONS INCLUDING INDIVIDUAL RACISM, SYSTEMATIC RACISM, INSTITUTIONAL RACISM, STRUCTURAL RACISM ETC.

THE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD WHO WAS A BLACK MALE, KILLED ONLY FOR BEING ACCUSED OF FORGING A CHECK BY A POLICE OFFICER LEANING ON HIS NECK UNTIL ASPHYXIATION. THIS HAS SPARKED RIOTS AND PROTESTS GLOBALLY IN ORDER TO GET RID OF POLICE BRUTALITY AND THE PREJUDICE POLICE SEEM TO HAVE AGAINST BLACK PEOPLE.

U.S. Embassies in Africa Condemn George Floyd Killing | Time

RACISM HAS EXISTED ALL OVER THE WORD, GEORGE FLOYD HOWEVER, GOT KILLED IN AMERICA, A COUNTRY INFAMOUS FOR RACISM.

BETWEEN 1525 AND 1866, 12.5 MILLION BLACK PEOPLE WERE KIDNAPPED FROM AFRICA TO THE AMERICAS THROUGH THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE. THIS WOULD’VE BEEN THE INITIAL SPARK TO RACISM, AS BLACK PEOPLE WERE NOW SEEN AS SLAVES AND ESSENTIALLY LESS SUPERIOR TO WHITE PEOPLE.

SLAVE WERE BEATEN, RAPED, LOOKED DOWN UPON AND MANY OTHER HORRIFIC THINGS ONE WOULDN’T WISH TO EXPERIENCE THEMSELVES, THEY WERE TREATED HOW NO HUMAN WOULD WISH TO BE TREATED. THEY WERE DEHUMANIZED.

EVEN WHEN THE SLAVE TRADE WAS MADE ILLEGAL, AND EVENTUALLY STARTED TO DIE DOWN. RACIAL INEQUALITY STILL OCCURRED. POLL TAXES EFFECTIVELY DISENFRANCHISED AFRICAN AMERICAN VOTERS, AFRICAN AMERICAN SOLDIERS WHO FOUGHT IN WORLD WAR 1 AND 2 WERE TREATED LIKE SECOND CLASS CITIZENS, BLACK INNOVATORS WERE BARRED FROM FILING PATENTS FOR THEIR INVENTIONS, WHITE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS EXPLOITED BLACK WOMEN’S BODIES, TRAVEL WAS SEGREGATED WITH THE WHITES HAVING TO SIT AT THE FRONT AND THE BLACK PEOPLE AT THE BACK, THIS SEGREGATION ALSO HAPPENED IN SCHOOLS.

Segregation Has Been the Story of New York City's Schools for 50 ...

IN ADDITION TO ENDURING CENTURIES OF ENSLAVEMENT, EXPLOITATION AND INEQUALITY, AFRICAN AMERICANS HAVE LONG BEEN THE TARGETS OF RACIALLY CHARGED PHYSICAL VIOLENCE. MORE THAN 4,400 LYNCHINGS AND MOB KILLINGS TOOK PLACE IN THE US BETWEEN THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION AND WORLD WAR 2. SURPRISINGLY, THE SENATE ONLY PASSED LEGISLATION DECLARING LYNCHING A FEDERAL CRIME IN 2018!

THIS IS ONLY HALF OF THE SUFFERING THAT BLACK PEOPLE HAVE ENDURED OVER THE YEARS. MANY PROTESTS HAVE TAKEN PLACE OVER THE YEARS. MARTIN LUTHER KING WAS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS BLACK ACTIVISTS WHO BECAME THE MOST VISIBLE SPOKESPERSON AND LEADER IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT FROM 1955-1968.

Image result for MARTIN LUTHER KING

ALL THIS HISTORY, HAS TRIGGERED THE PROTESTS OVER GEORGE FLOYD AS RACISM AGAINST BLACK PEOPLE IS STILL OCCURRING TODAY. THIS DIAGRAM BELOW SHOWS THE PREJUDICE AGAINST BLACK PEOPLE OR PEOPLE FROM OTHER ETHNIC BACKGROUNDS EXCEPT WHITE, EXPERIENCING THE FEAR OF BEING SHOT BY POLICE JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE OF A DIFFERENT ETHNICITY.

George Floyd: How are African-Americans treated under the law ...

CANDID PORTRAITS (INFORMAL)

Research

Contact Sheet

Editing and Image Selection

To begin editing my images, I opened up the image that I wanted to work with and instantly desaturated it, as Cartier-Bresson’s appears since he worked with an older camera, featuring black and white colours only. I feel like this also helps with the secretive and mysterious atmosphere that comes with Candid Photography.

After desaturating my images, I leveled them. I decreased the brightness and exposure, again to add to the atmosphere. I also increased the contrast to make the image appear a little darker and for the black colours to really stand out, again just as Cartier-Bresson’s images usually do.

After the first two steps, I then added noise to my images to give the impression that it is an older image, although it is not. I wanted to make my images as similar to Cartier-Bresson’s as I could and this included making the images older than they really are and adding noise helped to do this. I only really added a subtle amount of noise to my images.

Once I had done all of that, I ended the editing process of each image by cropping to the image to how I preferred it. I often cropped out un-needed background that distracted the audience from the subject.

Final Outcomes