Hidden racism and structures of power in the images of Ebola 2014

Abstract

Epidemics are considered paradigmatic states of emergency and humanitarian scenarios. Thus, humanitarian conceptualizations are negotiable through the very practices appearing in this type of emergency. This paper aims to investigate this process in relation to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, an event that is considered a global threat and an intolerable humanitarian situation. We analyze how the definition of what can be understood (or not) as humanity was constructed through visual representations produced by social media. We will also discuss how the definition of humanity was negotiated through dimensions such as the spectrum of visibility, the distribution of agencies, the affections intended to provoke, and the imaginaries defined. This paper is based on an empirical semiotic analysis of hundreds of images from the 2014 Ebola epidemic and 15 focus groups and individual interviews, performed over a span of one year, discussing images from social media.

Keywords

• racism
• Ebola
• images
• humanity
• emergency state