Every picture has an argument

Although we were supposed to read one picture, I thought using multiple would be better to get my point across. I went to google and typed in "sad people" and various images popped up. I wanted to see what our society thought of if they were to imagine the first sight that came to their mind. The majority of the pictures dealt with African American people or a race other than white. Two images that stood out to me were as follows: . This picture was interesting to me because although it does not show a face, all of the different sad faces are drawn on an African American's hands and feet. The curtain in the background is black, which is a color that signifies sadness or depression.

This picture also caught my eye. Although the child is being nourished by the mother, it still falls under a "sad person" category. Around the child's neck and the mother's wrist is some type of jewelry (you can also see some in the background on a leg). In their culture, this may represent wealth or success, but to our American society the entire photo seems to classify poor and sad. This may come from the fact that if we were asked to describe someone in poverty, one's description may be similar to this photo. The mother is laying down, clearly outside on the ground, with her head on a rock. She has no clothes on and in the background you can tell that the ground is dirt. Before I read the image, my first thought was that it must be somewhere in Africa and I'm sure other people's thoughts may match that as well. Going back to colors, we may also associate darker colored people with sadness because that's what darker colors typically signify. Both of these images are examples that our society may believe that a weak body belongs to someone who is not white.

To prove my point, I also searched happy people already knowing that some type of white person was going to show up and this was one of the first images. A group of white friends at a social event enjoying their drinks. Other images were also of groups of white people smiling and getting along. Our society associates a strong body with a white person. In the background, there are city lights, meaning that this group of friends probably went out for a night on the town. Some may know that ordering drinks can get spendy, but judging by the smiles on their faces, they don't care. They most likely have the money (because they are successful) to be able to go out and have fun.

I also saw this picture in the "sad people" search,

. Almost not surprisingly, the sad (weak) part of the face is the darker side. This photo overall summarizes my point that there is a high chance our society believes the stronger body is going to be a lighter colored person.