The endless Mediterranean tragedy /2

I would like to share with all of you some additional thoughts related to the tragic events are occurring in South Europe around the refugees issue.

Specifically, I would like to spend some words on the photos that have been circulating in this period, showing the origin places of many of those who are seeking refuge in Europe.

The situations and conditions showed by these photos are real, but we need to be very careful in using this kind of tools to communicate. Many among us are working – maybe I should say fighting – to improve the awareness of public opinion and decision makers about the conditions these persons left behind. And for that, these photos are useful. But, on the other side, we are also trying to deconstruct prejudices, biases, labels people use to watch at migrants. And for that, these photos are potentially noxious due to their capacity to reinforce the idea that all these people are desperate, poor, without any kind of resources.

They for sure are desperate and forced to leave their countries, but still they have knowledge, abilities, capabilities, experiences, expertise, and crucially important, they have opinions, dreams, desires, expectations, and plans.

The hectic pace of the mass media produces stories without history, persons without background, events without causes. Mass media apparently do not have time to go deeper, to present, if not all, at least some of the reasons and causes of the situations they daily portray. This produces de-historical, de-humanized, and two-dimensional non-persons, that means no more ‘someone’ but ‘something’ that they can manage and use in many different ways, often completely in contrast one another, and almost always very far from the perspectives of the protagonists. What matters are the mainstream society’s frames, without any possibility for alternative points of view to be considered.

The social media and the ways in which social activists are using them could be an important strategy to fight the monolithic mainstream mindset, but we have to pay attention in illustrating, contextualizing, and explaining our opinions, the information we publish, the photos we like, the stories we share. Otherwise, even if with good intentions, the risk is to reinforce some labels instead of criticize them. Towards this direction are oriented those photos that show the life that migrants were living before the escape. Those photos give back migrants’ humanity, history, and three-dimensional profile. At least they attempt to.

My point is that we cannot delete all the labels, because we need concepts and categories to understand and communicate the world surrounding us. What we need, in my opinion, is to reflect and deconstruct our labels and concepts, and, at the same time, to welcome and try to understand perspectives other than ours. They could be challenging, maybe uncomfortable but still useful to question our points of view and understand their implications. Only in this way we can find new strategies to create a common set of communication tools, at the same time assuming the responsibility of our words and our actions.