PLATFORM : The Image Matters

After 300 years of the holocaust of slavery and legally sanctioned segregation, African Americans still cannot tell our own stories without white “overseers.” The problem is that these artists, filmmakers and TV producers keep getting the African American picture wrong.

Consider the way in which a 29-cent stamp honoring my great-grandfather, Wild Bill Pickett, was handled by the Postal Service. Pickett was the Michael Jordan/Shaquille O’Neal/Charles Barkley of the turn of the century, the rodeo cowboy who invented bulldogging “bite-em” style. Instead of wrestling a steer to the ground, he would alight on its back, twist its head up with his hands and bite its lip, temporarily paralyzing the beast. Together they dropped to the ground. He was beloved by blacks and whites alike for his courage and showmanship.

The Postal Service commissioned a white artist who probably hadn’t heard of my great-grandfather (obviously he’d never seen his likeness). He used the wrong picture, causing the Postal Service to incur $1.2 million in reprinting costs. It was my family who pointed out the error. The Postal Service is throwing us a party in Oklahoma (no expenses paid). The white artist received $60,000 and the chance to try it again.