Images are powerful things. As it has been proved time and again, a single image can greatly influence the way we perceive ourselves and others, sometimes changing and sometimes reinforcing what and how we think, whether it be positive or negative or meh. And because we live in a world dominated by visuals, the matter of who controls the creation and presentation of any given image meant for public consumption can be highly significant and, at times, divisive.
Up for current consideration, a fashion photo published on page 25 in the September 2017 issue of Milwaukee Magazine that has rightly enraged the city's Black community and its allies. To be blunt, it is an image so obviously tactless, insensitive and dehumanizing in its composition that, upon initial glance, it should make every thinking human being on the planet join in a shouting chorus of "No, No, No!" or an equivalently clamorous phrase, perhaps laced with a healthy number of swear words.
For those Milwaukee-area residents who have somehow managed to remain unaware of this image and the ongoing controversy it has sparked, the photo depicts a young white woman modeling a minidress, which is fringed with 4,000 plastic cable ties, standing in front of a huge mural of a young Black man dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit. I'm going to recommend that you read that description again and review the image carefully—don't worry, I'll wait—just to make sure all of the offensive implications of this image have fully sunk in to your brain.
The image is one of four included in the Milwaukee Magazine fashion spread entitled A Cut Above and intended to promote the third annual Milwaukee Fashion Week (MFW), which is actually one day short of a working week (September 20-23) if you count the MFW Mingle event that happened last night, and who wouldn't? The spread features the work of four MFW designers: Emily Ristow, Allison Jarrett, Madalyn Manzeck, and Sarah Nasgowitz, the last of whom designed the minidress modeled in the infamous photo.
To her credit, Ms. Nasgowitz did post a private Facebook message—a screenshot of which I received from a source—stating that she was not aware of the photo until after its publication. She also offered her "apologies to those who were offended by the photo." It's a stand-up statement that, posted in its entirety, would be an admirable gesture of solidarity if made public, which I would like to suggest she do.
So how exactly did Milwaukee Magazine end up green-lighting and publishing such a clearly unacceptable photo in what should have been a benign fluff piece on fashion? The story is a deep one—and long one, so bear with me, kids—filled with all kinds of breaches of journalistic protocol and, at its heart, the stubborn presence of white privilege that pervades mainstream media and society at large.
As anyone who has ever picked up an issue of Milwaukee Magazine over the past 25 years knows, its target audience is overwhelmingly white. Though, to be fair, there is some diversity that can be recognized as the great majority of its content appears to be aimed at a broad range of whites, from affluent white suburban dwellers to affluent white urban dwellers. Truth-embedded sarcasm aside, it also publishes news-based articles regularly and investigative pieces on occasion.
Like all old-timey print magazines, Milwaukee Magazine distributes its monthly issues early, which is how local writer, public relations professional and entrepreneur Clarene Mitchell stumbled across the September issue while waiting to give blood to help hurricane victims on August 31. Her reaction to the photo was immediate and justifiable disgust, motivating her to write a brilliant opinion piece detailing why the composition of the image conveyed an abysmal juxtaposition and taking marketing firms to task over their continued lack of staff diversity.
Mitchell's op-ed, first published on LinkedIn, was quickly shared widely on social media and then republished by Milwaukee Independent on September 6. This prompted Milwaukee Magazine's editor-in-chief Carole Nicksin to meet with Mitchell on September 8. Also in attendance at the meeting were Mitchell's husband and business partner Thomas E. Mitchell Jr. and artist Adam Stoner, who had created the mural that was used as a "backdrop" in the magazine's photo.
Stoner's mural, entitled Devontay and located in the Black Cat Alley open-air gallery on the city's East Side, has its own history of controversy, which the artist handled deftly at the time of its unveiling last year and he continues to do so. The work is intended to call attention to the very serious issue of mass incarceration, especially as it occurs in Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin, which holds the very shameful distinction of having the highest incarceration rate of Black males in the United States. In light of this, Stoner had sent a letter to the magazine prior to meeting, objecting to the mural's use in the photo, stating in part:
"Please be aware that this photo is a deeply inappropriate and tone-deaf use of an artwork meant to condemn mass incarceration. There is nothing cool, trendy, or hip about the suffering of our black and brown neighbors. This photo takes an image of an inmate and makes it the background against which a white woman markets a designer fashion. This is completely unacceptable."
Right on.
As a significant matter of fact, Black Cat Alley and all the murals displayed there are the property of the East Side Business Improvement District (BID). Since any magazine photo shoot is a commercial endeavor, I reached out the organization to ask a few questions. Kristin Godfrey, the relatively new executive director, kindly provided the following statement:
"The East Side BID has been handling commercial photography requests on an as-needed basis since it was opened. The art is all copywrited and the copywrite is owned by the East Side BID. As far as I understand, Milwaukee Magazine did not contact either my predecessor (Jim Plaisted) or any of the East Side BID Board Members for permission… I am currently putting together a more complete commercial photography agreement for consistent execution moving forward as we are excited to have interest in usage of Black Cat Alley but want to ensure that it is used appropriately."
A very good idea indeed.
According to Clarene Mitchell, the in-person meeting with Milwaukee Magazine's Carole Nicksin did not go well. Faced with not just one but three concerned citizens, each with their own vested interest in seeing that the glossy publication be held accountable and that it own its terrible decision, the editor-in-chief—most likely in an ill-advised effort to lighten the mood—coyly insulted Mitchell for bringing an "entourage" with her. Needless to say, things went downhill from there.
After the meeting, on that same day, the magazine published a weakly worded apology on its website, burying it low on the homepage, carrying the ultra vague headline of An Apology. I'm not quite sure how they plan to differentiate the headline of this apology from any another in the future—or perhaps they believe they'll be perfect from now on—but I do know this: If they have any designs to delete this very important albeit lackluster apology at some point, they should be aware that the Internet never forgets and delete never really means deleted. In the interest of driving that fact home, I encourage all you readers to help out by clicking on the link to An Apology. Do it once, twice, maybe even ten times. It's super fun!
With the meeting having provided a very unsatisfactory outcome, the Mitchell wife and husband team appeared on 860 WNOV AM's The Rise and Shine Show with Jermaine Reed on September 11. For those not familiar, WNOV describes itself—as well as its sister station W293CX 106.5 FM—as "Milwaukee's true heritage radio station… [catering] to Milwaukeeans all across the city with relevant and engaging topics that are often ignored by mainstream media." The Rise and Shine Show airs Monday-Thursday, 7:00-9:00AM.
All in all, it was a very productive and honest discussion, covering other questionable publishing decisions made in that particular issue as well as the broader concern over how the Black community is portrayed in mainstream media. I highly recommend that everyone watch and listen to it here, especially white folks.
During the radio interview and call-in discussion, the couple described their meeting with Nicksin in detail. Apparently, the editor-in-chief admitted outright that Milwaukee Magazine does not employ any Black staff members or other people of color—okay, admission of an unpleasant fact is the first step to recognizing that you have a problem and that's a good thing. She then went on to say that the reason is because, through the methods (i.e. using websites that cater to journalism job seekers and employers) and standards (i.e. requiring past experience in magazine work specifically) that the publication has traditionally used, it simply hasn't been able to find qualified, diverse candidates in Milwaukee—ooh, admitting that you haven't really tried to explore all avenues to fix the problem and then claiming that the fault rests with others is always a very, very bad thing.
At a different point in the interview, Clarene talked about what she believes would be the right way for Milwaukee Magazine to truly apologize and show a real commitment to the Black community and other people of color as a part of the larger community, and it is something she also brought up to me when we sat down to compare notes on the issue. Though she admits herself that is perhaps a radical idea, Mitchell would like to see all copies the September 2017 issue removed from the physical and online shelves, for as long as they are there and available for purchase the photo remains an insult. And to that idea, radical as it may be, I give my hearty endorsement. I would allow the magazine to archive two print issues and one digital, ya know, so we can all marvel at them in the future and see how things were before the end of racism.
It should be noted here that John Kowalkowski, member of the Milwaukee Fashion Week (MFW) board, did call in to the show, displaying a graceful humility and sincerity that Nicksin could learn a lot from. On-air, Kowalkowski extended the organization's "sincerest apologies for that image being portrayed in the magazine," stating that MFW "did not have anything to do with that photo shoot" and outlining the organization's commitment to engaging the city's diverse cultures. His phone call and statement, which is largely reiterated in a post on the MFW Facebook page, was welcomed by all in the studio.
Let's just pause here to point out that MFW is yet another party that, as matter of professionalism, should have been notified and consulted about the photo shoot, and could have possibly stopped the publishing—maybe even the taking—of the photo, but simply wasn't. That's what we in the biz call breaches of journalistic protocol.
On September 12, the day after the Mitchells appeared on The Rise and Shine Show with Jermaine Reed, Milwaukee Magazine's editor-in-chief made her appearance on the same program, sitting down with the same host. While we can certainly commend Nicksin for her willingness to show up and face the discord, her performance was, well, let's break it down, shall we?
After Reed gave an introduction of his guest and a short synopsis of the controversy over the photo, Nicksin issued an additional apology, saying the initial statement on the website "in retrospect, perhaps it didn't go far enough" and that she is "well aware that we have the highest rate of incarceration for Black males in this state," characterizing the publication of the photo as a "major, major oversight."
Reed began the meat of interview by referencing another piece in the September issue, entitled The Notorious B.M.A. (a.k.a. Big Money Addicts), written by senior editor Matt Rhrodey, in order to discuss the overall concern of how Black men in particular are represented in the magazine. The article focuses on the criminal deeds of a North Side Milwaukee gang—B.M.A.—the leaders of which are four Black men. It's a fairly salacious, borderline tabloid, long-form story, with the author awkwardly throwing in the odd "street" term within the text. Mugshots of the four gang leaders are also featured prominently in the piece. Who knows, maybe they can get a reprint in The National Enquirer.
In response, Nicksin rattled off some positive articles the magazine has published in the recent past about various Black individuals and other people of color as well as subjects about and of concern and interest to the Black community. These facts are true, but her tone was a bit dismissive and somewhat defensive.
Nicksin was given the opportunity to address the utter lack of racial diversity on the Milwaukee Magazine staff when a caller wanted to hear about her plan to make the publication more fairly reflective of the community. The editor-in-chief chose to begin her response with a preamble, saying:
"I have to say, not in defense, but to fairly represent my staff, there are other types of diversity. There's religious diversity, there's gender diversity, and there's also, most importantly, diversity of opinion."
Nope, not relevant.
She did finally get to the question asked, however, by stating that she intendeds to reach out to the National Association of Black Journalists and other groups that advocate on behalf of people of color in professional media. And to that we say please do, but also make sure that local media professionals are included in the magazine's search. Here's a Facebook video of a couple of local professionals in which they list a fair number of writers, editors and other media types (beginning at 8:07) who live and work right here in Milwaukee. Homework is hard, but necessary.
There's just one more matter I'd like to call attention to in the Nicksin interview. On two separate occasions she referenced the fact that, a year and half ago, she came to Milwaukee from New York City, where, apparently, "integration is just a given" and she "worked with very diverse staffs" and "took it for granted that we all looked for jobs in the same [places]."
Firstly, I would like to direct Ms. Nicksin to the 2016 American Society of News Editors (ASNE) Diversity Survey, focused on daily print and online-only organizations. While Milwaukee Magazine is a monthly publication, these stats are transferable with a negligible margin of error. The survey found that minorities as a whole—including all women—make up only 16.94% of the overall workforce. And out of that, Black professionals make up only 5.33%, with Hispanics faring similarly and other people of color coming in even lower. That's nationwide, in the United States, where I believe both Milwaukee and New York City are located, so while it may be possible to have a perception of working "with very diverse staffs" the reality is a far cry from the level of diversity that we should all be experiencing.
Secondly, to say that "integration is just a given" anywhere in the U.S.—even in cosmopolitan NYC—is a textbook example of white privilege. Yes, there are places where integration rates are better and Milwaukee is the highest rated city when it comes to segregation, but we are in no way alone in this racial dysfunction. One need only read or watch or listen to the news to know that oppression and discrimination based on race, which is the cornerstone of segregation, is everywhere, therefore, integration cannot be taken for granted anywhere or by anyone.
Okay, so where does Milwaukee Magazine go from here? Here are my suggestions:
1. Hire Diversity. Numbers Count. Hire new staff members and build a pool of contributors consisting of many people of color at different levels of authority immediately.
2. Hire Local. There is simply no good reason to require that job candidates have experience specifically in the magazine industry. Writers are writers, photographers are photographers, graphics folks are graphics folks. They are professionals, they are flexible, and they will learn on the job quickly if they have to. Besides, it's the editor's job to make sure they do.
3. Abide By Journalistic Protocol. Ensure that all parties who have a vested interest in an event and/or other subject matter that you want to cover or promote are contacted and consulted. That is your professional duty and, while there is no guarantee, they may just stop you from a making a very, very bad decision.
4. Do Not Ignore This. This Is Not Going Away. As King Rick of The Original Black Panthers of Milwaukee told manager editor Tom Tolan when he peacefully lead his group to the magazine's offices on September 15, "This disrespect to our community has got to stop. We're gonna be out in front, picketing, protesting, boycotting, disturbing, disrupting until y'all get it right." And they and others will.
5. Do Not Attempt To Control The Conversation. There has been mention of Milwaukee Magazine hosting a panel discussion on this subject and larger related issues in the near future. I suggest that you have another entity, one with experience in this area, organize and host this event. You have lost credibility with a significant portion of the community and you will not be fully trusted. You should, of course, offer to foot the bill for the event.
6. Do The Work And Listen. White people at Milwaukee Magazine and everywhere, no matter how liberal, in-touch or woke—as the young people say—you think you are, it's not enough. You must keep educating yourself, you must keep working on yourself, but most importantly you must listen to people of color. Remember, no one person is ever a full representative of their group and no group is a monolith, so do the work to find different sources of insight to which you can listen and from which you can learn. From books written by intellectuals who are people of color to Black Twitter, the world is your teacher so go get yourselves an education.
I have some other suggestions, but I think I've made my point. Okay, here's to doing the work!
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