[ti:'National Geographic' Magazine Chief Admits History of Racist Coverage] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]National Geographic magazine admitted this week that racism [00:05.88]had influenced its reporting on the world for generations. [00:12.32]The head of National Geographic was critical of its images of bare-breasted women. [00:20.88]She rejected descriptions of brown-skinned tribesmen as savage and unintelligent. [00:30.32]"We had to own our story to move beyond it," [00:34.96]editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg told the Associated Press. [00:41.24]She was speaking about the magazine's April edition, [00:45.68]which explores the issue of race. [00:49.68]The National Geographic Society, a not-for-profit organization, [00:55.76]first published its magazine in 1888. [01:00.96]John Edwin Mason, a photography historian, [01:06.36]investigated National Geographic's reporting and choice of photos over the years. [01:14.28]He teaches African history and the history of photography [01:19.08]at the University of Virginia. [01:22.48]Mason reported his findings to the magazine in late 2017. [01:28.96]His study found that until the 1970s, [01:33.56]National Geographic largely ignored people of color in the United States [01:39.80]unless they were laborers or domestic servants. [01:44.60]It often supported the idea that people of color from foreign lands [01:50.20]were "exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, [01:54.92]happy hunters, noble savages...every type of cliché," Mason added. [02:03.24]For example, in a 1916 story about Australia, [02:08.80]a sentence next to a photo of two Aboriginal people read: [02:14.28]"South Australian Blackfellows: [02:17.24]These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings." [02:23.84]This examination comes as other media organizations [02:29.44]are also considering their past reporting work. [02:34.64]The New York Times recently admitted that most of its obituaries [02:40.52]described the lives of white men. [02:44.56]The newspaper began publishing stories on famous women [02:49.68]in an area called "Overlooked." [02:53.44]It launched the project on March 8, International Women's Day. [02:59.60]The April edition of National Geographic included a letter from Goldberg. [03:06.72]She identified herself as the magazine's first female and first Jewish editor. [03:15.20]Goldberg said in the letter that when the editors decided to examine the subject of race, [03:22.88]"we thought we should examine our own history [03:26.44]before turning our reportorial gaze to others." [03:31.68]She told the AP, "I knew when we looked back there would be some storytelling [03:38.64]that we obviously would never do today, that we don't do and we're not proud of. [03:45.76]But it seemed to me if we want to credibly talk about race, [03:51.08]we better look and see how we talked about race." [03:57.12]Mason said his investigation found repeated examples of racist imagery [04:05.24]in the magazine's representation of people of color. [04:10.60]For example, they often wore little clothing, he said. [04:16.11]People of color were also not usually seen in cities [04:22.56]or with "technologies such as cars, airplanes, trains or factories," Mason added. [04:32.08]"People of color were often pictured as living... [04:36.44]as ancestors might have lived several hundreds of years ago [04:41.68]and that's in contrast to Westerners [04:45.60]who are always fully clothed and often carrying technology." [04:52.52]Boys and men, Mason said, "could count on every issue or two of National Geographic [05:00.88]having some brown skin bare breasts for them to look at." [05:06.88]He said he believes that the editors knew that [05:12.32]was "one of the appeals of their magazine." [05:16.92]Women, especially those from Pacific islands, [05:20.88]were photographed in "ways that were almost glamour shots," Mason said. [05:28.04]Samir Husni heads the Magazine Innovation Center [05:32.72]at the University of Mississippi's journalism school. [05:38.28]He said many Americans first learned about the rest of the world by reading National Geographic. [05:46.76]Husni said it is important that kind of coverage never happens again. [05:53.20]He added that offering jobs in the magazine field [05:57.36]to people from all backgrounds is a way to apologize for the past. [06:04.04]Goldberg said she is doing just that. [06:07.68]She noted that National Geographic has done a better job of employing women [06:13.80]than members of racial and ethnic minority groups. [06:18.24]"We need photographers who are African-American and Native American [06:23.20]because they are going to capture a different truth [06:27.00]and maybe a more accurate story," Goldberg said. [06:31.76]National Geographic now reaches 30 million people around the world. [06:37.68]It was one of the first magazines to publish color photos. [06:42.76]The monthly magazine is well known for its coverage of history, [06:47.84]science, environmentalism and culture. [06:51.80]It can currently be found in 172 countries and in 43 languages. [06:59.48]I'm Ashley Thompson. [07:00.96]And I'm Caty Weaver. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM