Photomontage - Advantage Blindness

 

I'm calling this image “The Holy Mascot” 

In an article in the Harvard Business Review they describe Advantage Blindness as “When you have advantage blindness, you don’t feel privileged. You don’t notice a life of special treatment; it’s just normal. You don’t think about your physical safety most of the time; you don’t worry about holding hands with your partner in public; when you get angry, no one asks you if it’s because of your hormones; and people in power generally look like you.” 

I think it’s important to bring attention to this issue because if the people in power don’t recognize the advantages they have it becomes that much more difficult to level the playing field. Pointing out someone’s advantages doesn’t mean that they didn’t work hard to succeed, it just means that they didn’t have the same barriers to their success as the disadvantaged. If we can recognize these barriers then we can begin to remove them.

My photomontage might seem like I am taking a religious stance but actually I am trying to point out that by choosing a white Jesus as the mascot for christianity they ensured their success as a religion. It’s very unlikely that a man from Galilee would have the classic features we think of when we picture Jesus. I imagine, at some point, the religion needed to market themselves to a more saxon audience which is where the white Jesus campaign was probably born. Nonetheless, the success of Christianity is undeniable. They have been able to produce a best selling book and tons of merch, with no end in sight for ongoing sales. 

original image

I think I would use this image as part of an article about advantage blindness. I tried to design the other 2 ideas using some of the same color and texture to create a little series of images. I think they could all be part of the same article.

The other two images are:  

1. Birth Justice: Black and brown women should have the pregnancy they want and deserve but they have been systematically excluded from. 

 2. Covid Vaccine: Richer countries secure billions of doses even before the drugs pass final clinical trials while poorer countries lag behind.

I feel like they could all fall under the umbrella of advantage and the article could explore each topic. I used the gold texture to symbolize money and how it is used to blind the nurse to the suffering of the world and jesus to his own advantage. It also makes an appearance as a best seller sticker on the bible and on the nurses arm band. In the child birth image I used the gold to show how it causes the sickness/death of black and brown children because of injustice for birth rights. I used scale to try and create hierarchy so that the focus is on the figure. Also used Yves Klien blue to create a strong contrast with the light gold color. I think the Klein blue creates this sort of this sort of eerie feel, which I think is really successful.

References Harvard Business Review, Do You Have Advantage Blindness. (2018). Retrieved October 6, 2020, from https://hbr.org/2018/04/do-you-have-advantage-blindness