Sounds About White: Ugandan Climate Activist Vanessa Nakate Conveniently Cropped Out of AP Photo with White Climate Activists

January 24, 2020
blacklikevanilla
Black News

This is Vanessa Nakate, a 23-year old climate activist from Uganda.

On Friday, she joined other climate activists, including Greta Thunberg who inspired Nakate to start her own climate movement in Uganda, for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

During a news conference, Nakate joined four other climate activists: Thunberg, Luisa Neubauer, Isabelle Axelsson and Loukina Tille. I’ll state the obvious: all except Nakate are white. When reviewing news coverage of the event, Nakate noticed something was missing…HER! The Associate Press (AP),  one of the largest news agencies in the world, issued a photo with Nakate conveniently cropped out.

Other news outlets began circulating the cropped out AP photo, further erasing Nakate from this important and powerful moment. After being called out for its blatant racism, the AP later changed the photo to include the one featuring Nakate.

Nakate did not let the slight go unnoticed. She expressed her hurt and dismay in a series of tweets (below) including a 10 minute video where she said:

“We don’t deserve this. Africa is the least emitter of carbons, but we are the most affected by the climate crisis…You erasing our voices won’t change anything. You erasing our stories won’t change anything,” she said.

“I don’t feel ok right now. The world is so cruel.”

Nakate expressed her hurt and anger to Buzzfeed News stating:

“I cried because it was so sad not just that it was racist, I was sad because of the people from Africa.”

In regards to the omission, an AP spokesperson said, “There was no ill intent. AP routinely publishes photos as they come in and when we received additional images from the field, we updated the story. AP has published a number of images of Vanessa Nakate.” The AP’s Director of Photography, David Ake said, “The photographer was trying to get a picture out fast under tight deadline and cropped it purely on composition grounds because he thought the building in the background was distracting.”

By the way, this is what David Ake looks like:

J. David Ake, AP Director of photography

Its funny how there is never ill intent meant when subtle racism is at play. The media has its own agenda and it typically revolves around elevating white women. This is why its hard to join their movements…hard to care when they finally decide an issue we have been SCREAMING about is important. We must take a stand, like Nakate, and call them out for their racist practices.

In addition, it is up to us to acknowledge our own so if you know Greta Thunberg’s name then you should know:

Vanessa Nakate, Uganda

 

Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti, Kenya

 

Oladosu Adenike, Nigeria

And that is just the start. The media BLACKout is not new. We need to make sure to call them out on their shit while propping up our own. We control our own narratives and our narrative will definitely include Nakate, and the likes, and the contributions they have made to make OUR world a better place. It starts with us.

Thank you Vanessa Nakate for occupying space! Your #BlackGirlMagic is shining through!