American Studies lesson based on Maurice Bergers' "Images of Emancipation" in the New York TImes' Lens blog. See: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/images-of-emancipation/?smid=pl-share
2. “Negroes can never have impartial portraits, at the
hands of white artists. It seems to us next to
impossible for white men to take likenesses of black
men, without most grossly exaggerating their
distinctive features. And the reason is obvious.
Artists, like all other white persons, have adopted a
theory respecting the distinctive features of Negro
physiognomy. We have heard many white persons…
3. say, that ‘Negroes look all alike,’ and that they could
not distinguish between the old and the young. They
associate with the Negro face, high cheek bones,
distended nostril, depressed nose, thick lips, and
retreating foreheads. This theory impressed strongly
upon the mind of an artist exercises a powerful
influence over his pencil, and very naturally leads
him to distort and exaggerate those peculiarities,
even when they scarcely exist in the original.”