The April edition of the National Geographic magazine is focussed on one prime subject, looking into the issue of race after admitting to have ignored this topic for years.
National Geographic, which was first published in 1888, has acknowledged that they portrayed bare-breasted women and brown-skinned tribesmen as unsophisticated, savage and unintelligent.
The new edition, titled The Race Issue, has twin sisters, Marcia and Millie Biggs, one who is black and the other who is white, on the front cover, representing them both to be equal, rather than one being superior or inferior because of the colour of their skin. The front cover also stated, “Black and White – These twin sisters make us rethink everything we know about race.”
In an interview, the editor-in-chief at National Geographic, Susan Goldberg said, “We had to own our story to move beyond it.”
In a letter titled “For Decades, Our Coverage Was racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It”, Susan Goldberg wrote, “I knew when we looked back there would be some storytelling that we obviously would never do today, that we don't do and we're not proud of. But it seemed to me if we want to credibly talk about race, we better look and see how we talked about race. The coverage wasn't right before because it was told from an elite, white American point of view, and I think it speaks to exactly why we needed a diversity of storytellers. So we need photographers who are African-American and Native American because they are going to capture a different truth and maybe a more accurate story.”
