Howard Sparber, illustration from The Myth That Threatens America (1945)
PULLMAN, Wash. – The contributions of artists in remapping American racial attitudes during World War II and the postwar period will be discussed by fine arts professor Marianne Kinkel at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, in CUE 203, part of the Washington State University Common Reading Tuesdays series.
Common Reading Tuesdays feature topics tied to the book used by freshmen in dozens of first-year classes. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” by Rebecca Skloot, raises issues about race, culture, economics, ethics and more. For more information, visit http://CommonReading.wsu.edu.
Kinkel will talk about her research and exhibit, “Shifting Perceptions: Anti-Prejudice Cartoons and Air Age Cartography,” which was recently displayed at the Free Museum of Dallas. The work explores anti-prejudice cartoons, comic books and animated films of the 1940s that engaged an American dilemma – racial and religious discrimination practiced in a country of democratic ideals.
Contesting entrenched views of a hierarchy of races, some of the cartoons were so controversial that they were debated in Congress and banned from use in the U.S. military. “Shifting Perceptions” considers how artists experimented with the graphic language of cartoons to represent the discourse of racial equality, promote religious tolerance and deflate white American notions of racial superiority.
Beverly Makhani, Communications Director, University College at WSU, 509-335-6679, makhani@wsu.edu