Sacco: Using Globalization as a Parallel for Current-Day Stereotyping Against African-Americans in the U.S.

In his series, “The Unwanted,” Joe Sacco illustrates the social role that Maltese immigrants played in the globalization process as being a strong parallel to the inequality African-Americans experience on a day-to-day basis in the United States. As if to reveal the typically veiled dichotomous power dynamic between members of the white male hegemony and African-American men in the most obvious way possible, Sacco’s depictions of racist and derogatory one-way interactions are so appalling that it is nearly impossible to turn a blind eye. For example, the illustrations are clearly drawn from the hegemonic perspective (although Sacco is Maltese), which depicts the Europeans as primarily sophisticated, clean and hard-working, while the Maltese are drawn as deviant, animalistic outsiders covered with the hoods of their sweatshirts as though they are worthless and up to no good. This difference in illustration alone brings to light the stereotypes African-Americans endure as a regular part of life in the U.S. when applying for jobs or even merely wearing a hood in public. 

In addition to the outwardly racist depictions of the Maltese through the hegemonic eye, Sacco incorporates stark and highly stigmatic language in order to reveal much of the unspoken racist thoughts that give way to the systematic racism that African-Americans face in their everyday lives as a consequence. In a particularly disturbing commentary, Sacco portrays a white man, “The Visionary,” before a pit of Maltese immigrants saying, “We just dump them into quarries [under] the blistering sun there, the pelting rain, and just drop bread and water to them . . . Within six weeks they’ll be crying to be sent back.” While this illustration and the accompanying language is highly unsettling to any audience of his work, Sacco’s message could not have been more clear and attention-grabbing to those in denial. What stems from slavery, or the quarry in this case, is a continuous deeply-rooted ideological problem that continues to divide the white male hegemony from his African-American counterparts to this day.

Although slavery, the Holocaust, and other historic crimes against humanity are now little more than textbook material to the average American, ideological differences regarding who defines what is “normal” and what is “deviant” continue to permeate the very structures that guide our inter-racial interactions in present-day America. Although a majority of these unequal power dynamics are silent and therefore unquestioned, Sacco and many others will continue to use their talents in order to make sure the African-American narrative is no longer silenced. Only then can the dichotomy begin to loosen.