Thinking in Pictures

Don Delillo's 1991 book Mao II may be one of the most brilliant works of literature I've read since I discovered The Corrections. It deftly covers modern Western culture with ruminations on authors' likeness to terrorists, mass consumption, and, at a very basic level, the way in which we understand the world through images. Delillo's novel is too good for any synopsis to be worthwhile, so I'll skip it. Instead, I would like to point out a contemporary demonstration of Mao II's themes.

A month ago, Trayvon Martin--a black seventeen year old in Florida--was shot and killed on the way back home from buying Skittles and an iced tea. The shooter was a man named George Zimmerman, a self-styled neighborhood watch leader who thought Martin looked "suspicious" and who has not been charged with any crime. There are all kinds of complexities in the case--Zimmerman was following Martin, Zimmerman has a history of calling the police for suspicious persons reports, a cry for help heard on the 911 tape that suporters of both parties claim as their own, and the recent reports that Martin had in fact been the aggressor--but I'm not going to go into any of those. They will only distract from my point.

The fact is that what exactly happened has yet to be determined. Nonetheless, the accounts fall into two camps:

(1) Martin was a completely innocent kid who was attacked for being black (and, if you listen to Geraldo Rivera, wearing a hoodie). This is a blatant case of racism in which the police don't care about the black victim and in which racial profiling led to the murder of a good child.

(2) Zimmerman was a good man trying to make his neighborhood safer after an influx of crime. In this effort, he got into an altercation with Martin and was forced, tragically, to kill him.

I will say at this point that I think it's obviously absurd Zimmerman hasn't faced a more thorough investigation at the very least. Even if Martin threw the first punch, he was being followed by a man he did not know, which would warrant that punch. Shooting Martin is not an acceptable action in those circumstances seeing as Zimmerman was the one who decided to treat Martin like a criminal based on no evidence and with no real authority.

My point, however, is that both of these accounts depend upon stereotypical images for their force. Zimmerman was picturing the young black gangster in the hoodie who is out to steal, kill, and rape. He had an image handed down from out culture in mind that he used as a judgment against Martin, and, as a result, killed an innocent youth. On the other hand, Martin's supporters are picturing the young black star who is the pure victim of his race.

One of these images--Martin as victim--certainly seems as though it is closer to the truth. But the problem is that in thinking via these images, there is no room for gradation. Things are not greater or lesser degrees from guilt or innocence: they are this image or that. Zimmerman was a good guy or a murderer. Martin was a victim or he instigated the fight that led to his death.

The way we think is limiting our understanding of events. It forbids the thought that Zimmerman was a decent but overzealous man. That thought does not lead to the conclusion that Zimmerman was innocent or that Martin is not the victim of racism--but it does forbid the vitriol toward Zimmerman that exists now without any certainty. Once again, both sides of the debate are plagued. Zimmerman's supporters ignore the obvious racism in the event and Martin's lack any subtlety.

While Delillo does not discuss racism in Mao II, he does demonstrate a key fact about modern culture. And it is this fact that we must understand in issues like Trayvon Martin's murder. This is not to say that there should not be outrage about Martin's death, but rather that the outrage should come with understanding--understand at the basic cause of modern racism. And thinking in images--as it is done now, anyways--cannot succeed in that task.