Friday’s Culture Casserole: Gordon Parks at The Schomburg

Contributed by Patrick H.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is holding an exhibit of Gordon Parks top photographic works now through Saturday, 1st December 2012.

Gordon Parks was the first African-American photographer to work for Time magazine as well as the first to produce and direct a major Hollywood film, The Learning Tree.  He also directed the famous action movie, Shaft.

One of his most famous works, “American Gothic,” is a part of the exhibit. In the photo, Ella Watson, a cleaner in Washington D.C., stands in front of an American flag.  Parks wanted to address the bigotry in US Capitol as well as the country as a whole.  When he shot the photo, Parks had spent the day in the city and had experienced racism throughout his day.  Restaurants made him enter through the back door; theaters would not allow him inside; a clothing store would not sell him a suit.  He told his friend Roy Stryker, head of the Farm Security Administration, about his ordeal and Stryker told Parks to speak to some of the older African- Americans who were residents of Washington, DC all their lives. One such person was Ella Watson. She told him the story of her life, including the bigotry and hatred she had encountered and he decided to document her life.  Photos of Parks stay in Washington, DC are on display at The Schomburg Center.  The photos are beautiful and  moving.

Parks’ Exhibit, entitled 100 Moments, is a reminder of a time that has past but some of the scars still remain.  We may no longer have to go through separate doors but prejudices still exist.  As people become less racist or homophobic, they are becoming more judgmental about other issues such as being overweight or smoking.  We may have grown more sympathetic to people living with AIDS but we do not hesitate blaming people for having lung cancer.

In order to rid ourselves of prejudice, we need to look within ourselves and question why we are so angry.  It is easier to blame people for an illness than face our fear of getting sick ourselves.  It is easier to pass judgement on a group, than to face the judgments and criticism we feel towards ourselves.  Self-Acceptance is the first step to coming to terms with our fears and putting an end to our prejudices.  When we do this, we can better be ourselves and accept others as they are without needing to judge them to feel better about ourselves.

What do you think we can do to end prejudice? We invite you to write your ideas in the box below.