The image that appears in Ferguson, Uncensored by Tim Dickinson speaks volumes about the racial issues and tensions that currently exist in the present day United States.  The racial debate has always been a controversial topic in the United States, as well as an area where citizens are frequently divided.  However, the incident that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri made a monumental splash in an already explosive struggle.  The image captures that struggle completely and clearly shows the separation in our nation.  African Americans have suffered substantially throughout our history and are often targeted solely because of their race. Law enforcement officers, who are known to lack individual identities and are often viewed as a completely unified group that acts with the same intentions, frequently expect African Americans to be criminals or at least socially indecent people based on their subconscious instincts simply because the stereotype is such a flagrant part of our society and the current pop culture.  

The first theme that relates to the picture is how police forces have the general tendency to overreact to any possible illegal activity that an African American maybe partaking in.  The main support for this claim is that how in the picture there are a total of ten fully armed and armored national guard members aimed at a single unarmed African American man with his hands raised in a cooperative way.  The reason it is interpreted that he is being arrested is because in the image the African American man has his arms raised in a complaisant and non– violent manner which represents his unprotested arrest.  It can also be assumed by this fact that the policemen suspected that he was participating in illegal activity.  The picture sets the tone of a certain innocence that the African American man possesses as opposed to the ferocity and unrelenting swagger of the policemen.  The man appears to have an average backpack that was described to contain a camera, in a possibly restricted area, which simply should not correlate to the deployment of ten guards in full body armor who are all willing to shoot at a moment’s notice.  The comparison that relates to the main argument of the paper is that the police would undoubtedly not have responded with such animosity if a Caucasian male of the same age and stature were holding the same knapsack in a possibly restricted area.

The next theme that is addressed through symbolism in the image is that all policeman act in a unified and narrow minded manner.  Dickinson uses the literary device of symbolism to represent this common phenomenon.  He does this by selecting a picture where all of the guards’ faces are completely concealed by their masks.  These masks take away their individual identities and attributes completely, while giving the guards a united and harmonious appearance.  There is a huge contrast in the picture between not only the physical appearance, but the overall nature of the African American and the guards.  The image portrays the guards as having an almost robotic and rigid physical feature to them, while the African American appears casual and relaxed.  This robotic look suggests a general feeling of inhumanity that is associated with the guards as they appear in the visual.  The guards in the image perfectly identify with the general consensus that law enforcement officers as a group act more as a uniform machine rather than individual people with human qualities.

Another visual motif that guides the overall message and tone of the picture is the white writing located on the upper portion of the blue postal box that reads, “Fuck the Police.”  Although the message maybe clear that the public at large is discontent with the recent acts of the nation’s judicial officers, there are various attributes about the positioning and color of the physical text that has an even deeper meaning to the cause.  The first is the color of the writing being white.  This caught my attention because the writer could have used any color to communicate his message, however he chose white to bring attention to the fact that the officers that are committing the unjust acts are Caucasian.  This is referencing towards the Caucasian officers targeting African Americans for unjust and biased reasons like is depicted in the visual image.  The next had to do with the camera angle from which the picture was taken.  As the viewer can see, the text is facing the African American man, however the officers are blind to it because they are seen to be behind the post office box, and would have no way of being able to physically see the writing.  The camera man was using this angle in order to display to the viewers that the law enforcement officers are blinded by their mission to address the petty crime that is occurring in the image with the African American man that they are not capable of seeing the much larger problem that is unraveling in our nation.  This problem is that the African American community feels as though they are not being treated fairly by our country’s Caucasian police officers and that their message is being ignored.  These feelings have created a distinct separation in the United States’ unity and in my mind an internal civil war between the African American community and our Caucasian law enforcement officers.  While from the African American man’s vantage point, he can clearly see the message on the box and that the officers are completely oblivious to it.  This symbolizes in itself the African American community’s acute awareness to the overall division in our society and the feelings of extreme hatred that they feel towards the unjust acts of law enforcement as a whole at this moment.  

The image displayed by Tim Dickinson brings the viewer’s attention to a very real and serious problem that is causing a constant disturbance amongst the United States’ population.  The entire concept of singling an individual out by race is a morally indecent act when it is performed by a pedestrian in a common place, however when the leaders of our judicial system begin to adopt this mentality then it is a recipe for chaos, and most likely the eventual divide in a nation.  
