22020172- Weekly Blog 2

Muhammad Ashar Imran

22020172

Weekly Blog 2

On Representation

            

If each picture does speak a hundred words the USSR has conveyed novel after novel with their posters on issues ranging from space races, poverty, communism and perhaps more relevant to our course: racism and diversity. My blog is going to focus on themes of inclusivity, belonging in the present and the idea of somebodiness.

The idea that ties all of these together is the concept of representation. At a time when the criteria for being a human being for a non-white person was accomplishing feats that only the exceptional few could accomplish, representation mattered. Claude McKay as he describes it was, crudely put, a nobody. He was a poet and not an exceptionally celebrated one. Even in the communist context McKay was neither a political leader nor influential in the communist party. It then becomes interesting to wonder that how does this nobody poet find himself addressing large audiences and meeting political giants in the Soviet Union. What one must also wonder is that even though McKay so clearly can identify the tokenism happening why he is still so happy with the attention. The answer that comes to my mind based on the class discussion is because perhaps for the first time in his life Claude McKay is somebody just because he is black. I will rephrase this to better show the contrast. In USA McKay is specifically a nobody in fact he faces a lot of issues BECAUSE he is black. In the USSR the literal reason for him not being treated the same way is because the color of his skin. For the first time in his life McKay is not only existing as a dignified human being, he is being treated like a statesperson or a celebrity and even if that is happening because of some tokenism it does not matter because no matter what the means for the first time in his life McKay does not have to fight and beg for representation.

This is where we can see even in the poster that people of different color are standing side by side fighting for a common cause. It pushes the idea that you, as a person of color, belong here just as much as anyone else. That you the Black man, and the Asian man and the White man are all an equally important part of the common great struggle. That you have as much to contribute to communism as anyone else. At a time when racism and slavery and colonization are prevalent in Europe and the USA posters like these have astounding effects. The message sent that from being a nobody in whatever country you are right now you will be a somebody inside the USSR. You will be as much a somebody as anyone else. Imagine as a person who has been treated as unwanted and as close to trash as possible for the entirety of his life to be finally told that you belong in this present just as much as anyone else and are needed in the cause of communism.

The link between this poster and what McKay says then is that what McKay feels as what this poster looks to accomplish. It looks to make people feel welcome, to give them representation and make them a part of their cause. Claude McKay’s experience in the USSR makes him write truly wonderful things about the country. It makes him paint The USSR as a great place for all, it makes communism look like the solution to racism and slavery and colonialism. If we zoom out a bit perhaps this propaganda poster achieved in what it was built for. It was able to spread a narrative making out the USSR as the greatest place on Earth.