The image I chose is of an American who traveled to Africa and is holding hands with what seems to be a kid from Africa. In this photo the hand of the little kid doesn’t even look real because of how small and malnourished he is. The white man’s hand, however, is of normal size with fat fingers, so I think the contrast between the small skinny hand and a normal sized hand with fat fingers is meant to represent the privilege that the white man has. Larger typically means better in many societies so the idea of a larger hand representing privilege makes sense.
To go more into detail about the child’s hand, it is very small like comparable to a 4–5-year-old toddler in America and the skin is wrinkled, as well as having absolutely no arm hair. I do not know the age of the person in the photograph so I can’t speak much to the size of the hand, but the skin being wrinkled is a tell-tale sign that they are dehydrated. Knowing this further pushes the idea that the white man is more privileged because he has access to resources like clean drinking water, unlike the child.
The child not having any arm hair portrays that they. Do not get enough nutrients to grow the hair. All humans are meant to have arm hair unless there are certain factors that stop it from growing. One of the biggest factors is diet and with the size of the arm and hand, it’s obvious this person does not get what they need to maintain life for a long period of time. In contrast, the white man has a full arm of hair, meaning that he is healthy and is getting the food and water he needs to live. Once again further proving that the white man has more privilege than the kid because the white man has access to the basic human necessities.
This image was taken so that people thought about how fortunate they are to have access to things we take for granted like food and water. They use clear and large contrasts including: skin color, skin texture, hand size, etc.
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