Clarissa T. Sligh’s The Plaintiff Speaks reminded me of my race, gender and class course while I studied journalism since it deals with misinterpretation of race in the news. So I couldn’t help to think that Sligh had journalism and communications students in her mind when she wrote The Plaintiff Speaks, especially when she became a photographer so she can omit any misinterpretation of the working black community. I think Sligh knows she can not be the only one climbing this mountain so for her to gain allies she has to educate people about her fight, and aspiring reporters or photographer are just one of the best people she can educate because news misinterpretation applies to their career field more than anyone.
Sligh started her chapter the way she did so to provide a background or context to her opinions and feelings. It serves as a justification to her reactions while she was photographed for the news article and after the article was published. I also think she started this article so to avoid getting misinterpreted by the readers or anyone again.
The little use of profanity in the chapter also serves as a purpose to Sligh’s agenda or message. It is clear that Sligh is mad about what happened to her, but if she had cursed up and down in the article she’s going to look bad despite the message she is trying to tell. She’ll lose the readers if she had used more profanity, and the curse words will muddle her message. Also if she had used more profanity, she would have lived up to the stereotypes of African-Americans as loud, vulgar and uneducated beings. This also reminds me of a moment in one of my creating writing classes. My writing was described as “gentle” by my professor so when I had written a short piece, which included two vulgar curse words. When I read the piece in class, it made him figuratively stand up because he did not expected those profanity to come from my “gentle” writing, but it did made him listen more to my story. I think this can be applied with Sligh’s chapter in that if utilized well profanity can help a message or a story.
Prior to reading Sligh’s piece, I did not think much about posting the “ugly” manipulated photographs on my blog. I thought, “okay it’s just an assignment to do,” but after I read Sligh’s chapter I thought differently of my “ugly” photos. There are a total of six photos up on my blog: the original-pre-manipulation image, three images manipulated to how I liked it and two images that I had to make “ugly.” I know that if people were looking at those sets of images, the “ugly” photos would grab their attention more because of the stark contrast just how I think people would have analyzed Clarissa’s image more in the news article than the images of the white mother and daughter. Due to how they were manipulated, my “ugly” photos and Clarissa’s photos are opened to negative criticism and analyzation more than the other images.
Lastly, I think Sligh wrote this piece just to get her side of the story that she clearly couldn’t do when the photos were published. She didn’t have a say on how she should be represented while the photos were taken, and she certainly had no say on how she could live her life after the news article was published since people expected her to act and think according to their own liking. This chapter is Sligh’s voice on a matter that affected her life.
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