POLITICO NO-NO: Bad editing or intentional racism? Twitter calls out “darkened” photo of Stacey Abrams
POLITICO, once a reputable “news” site, has increasingly shifted to the right thanks to *checks notes* being owned by a German right-wing company called Axel Springer, which also sounds like the name of a Roger Moore-era Bond villain.
So what, you might ask? Sew propaganda, is what I might reply. Along with a whole lot of racism and misogyny.
As is their right under the First Amendment, POLITICO dropped a new piece about Stacey Abrams, the Democratic darling who essentially won Georgia for the party back in 2020. Now running for Governor against the incumbent slab of unsliced Wonder Bread that is Brian Kemp (AGAIN), Abrams remains the target of plenty of racists. But did POLITICO intentionally darken a photo of Abrams, or is it just really bad photo editing? You. Make. The. Call.
POLITICO’s graphic:
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Actual Stacey Abrams:
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Photographers have historically never been able to accurately capture skin tones that aren’t white, and as a result, too many Black women are often portrayed in a literally negative light. And plenty of MAGA douches with even the most basic PhotoShop skills can darken a Black woman’s skin and a whole lot worse, and they certainly have. But was this an intentionally racist move by POLITICO or just an exceptionally bad photo choice? Plenty of Twitter users thought it was the former.
This is a racist hit job on Stacey Abrams. How do I know? You took time to darken her photo and use the most unflattering picture. A simple google search would've yielded far better pics than the one you're using. https://t.co/P9fFM6kAzS
— Ms. Teal ☮️ (@TSleuth_2021) October 24, 2022
Erasing Black women is also something else Politico seems to specialize in.
Oh shit! @staceyabrams has a lawyer on her staff that had a JOB!!!! Call the national guard! A black woman has a friend with a job!!!!!!!
When the fuck will @politico get rid of the dead weight dipshits
Pathetic article. Probably funded by Putin…https://t.co/A4ECe2Wc3H
— Republicans Hate You (@you_republicans) October 24, 2022
Hey @politico, looks like you forgot to include @staceyabrams. I’m sure that was an error since she’s the most well known election denier running this year, so we’ll be on the look out for the correction
Or, are you really just Regime Media jurnoactivists? pic.twitter.com/NHVbqacpbJ
— WPA Intelligence (@WPAIntel) October 6, 2022
May I also remind you that Black women have been scaring the everything out of mediocre white Republican men for all of recorded history? That’s why mediocre white Republican men love to use Black women like Stacey Abrams as a scapegoat when they don’t get the trophies or election results like the winners did.
Republicans are trying to pin the ‘Big Lie’ on Stacey Abrams – POLITICO https://t.co/7chxVZ1wSy
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) December 23, 2021
While I would never presume to speak to a Black woman’s lived experience, I can tell you that my eyes can see the same things you’re seeing. So, I’m going with POLITICO making the deliberate choice to use an unflattering photo of Stacey Abrams on a hit piece.
"The most dangerous thing facing Georgia is 4 more years of Brian Kemp." — Stacey Abrams
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) October 17, 2022
Tara Dublin is a woefully underappreciated and unrepresented writer currently shopping a super cool novel that has nothing to do with politics while also fighting fascism on the daily.
Follow her on Twitter @taradublinrocks.
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