Subjectivity

In his 1972 work, Ways of Seeing, John Berger writes, “The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.” This very clearly underlines that we describe what we see and what we make of what we see. It is an insight into how Berger views and acknowledges the fact that we interpret an image, text or an event according to our knowledge and beliefs. This way of seeing could also be implied as a term known as subjectivity. It is the collection of the perceptions, experiences, expectations, personal or cultural understanding, and beliefs specific to a person. In short, subjectivity is thinking that is affected by one’s own emotion. Berger’s idea of subjectivity relates to race, ethnicity, and identity because these are personal and cultural expectations that a person believes in based off their own experiences in society. The Prologue to Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Chicana by Martha Serrano, and Racial Formations by Michael Omi and Howard Winant support John Berger’s argument of subjectivity with the abstract concepts of race, ethnicity, and identity.

The unflinching portrayal of black identity in American society, supports Berger’s statement of subjectivity very strongly in the secondary text by Martha Ellison, Prologue to Invisible Man. The reader can assume that this invisible man is actually an African American man living in an American society during the time of racial segregation. The majority in the American society refused to “see” this African American man because of the way they were taught during the time of racial segregation. Most white people believed to be superior to blacks during that time so they identified this black man to be “invisible,” paying no special attention to him as a person. The invisible man states that he is a “Man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids…I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me,” showing that he is a human being like everyone else around him, but because of...