A Magazine Finds Its True North

National Geographic: The Race Issue
National Geographic, April 1, 2018

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The April 2018 issue of National Geographic is solely dedicated to the issue of race, and the new editor-in-chief, Susan Goldberg, has taken the bold and much needed step to fully acknowledge and study the magazine’s own history of perpetuating racial bias since its inception in 1888. Goldberg’s letter from the editor talks openly and courageously about why the magazine needed to undertake research into the ways their staff depicted the nonwhite people of the world and to face the ways in which its readers’ bigotry was reinforced by photos of, for example, Africans depicted as happy hunters and noble savages. She speaks to the ease with which images of human nakedness distinguished the colonized from the colonizer and the harm done in those instances. The issue also includes fascinating articles that explode constructs we have held historically about the biological and genetic basis for race; discusses the varied ways that racial inequality plays into lifelong struggles for people of color in health, education, homeownership, and the like; and talks about the changing demographics and rates of intermarriage in the United States. This compelling collection of articles will be helpful to any director of inclusion and diversity or teacher who integrates issues of race into curriculum. Most important, however, is the model Goldberg provides of a traditional and well-respected magazine facing its own racist past openly, fully, and bravely, while also providing a path forward to more fair-minded and inclusive reporting standards and choices as the magazine moves into the future.