From the start of this class, we have stressed and explored the subjectivity of maps. How maps can illustrate and communicate almost anything the cartographer would like to portray. Whether it be the beauty of a certain region, the demographic buildup of an area, or the rock layers beneath the ground itself, maps have the power to show almost anything. However, with this subjectivity can come bias and issues of misinformation or the skewing of certain messages or narratives for good and for bad.
In the instances of the maps of lynchings from the EJI and the Monroe & Florence Work Today websites, the messages are “skewed” to show the horrors of lynching in the United States. I say “skewed” only because today there is a journalistic or research norm to represent both sides, which in this situation would completely take away from the meaning of both projects. The projects are able to portray the gruesome, unjust practice of lynching in the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras.
To start with the EJI map, I immediately was drawn to the focus on the South Eastern portion of the United States where an overwhelming majority of lynchings occurred in the US. The only issue I have with this illustration is that it dulls out the area outside the Southeast, almost making lynchings that occurred outside the US seem unimportant or separated from the issue. While the EJI map was useful its depth paled in comparison to the Monroe Today Map.
The Monroe and Florence Work Today Map is a broader collection of lynchings that correctly portrays the lynchings occurring outside of the Southeast. This map does not just focus on a certain region or area but is an incredibly detailed interactive map of lynch mob violence in the United States completely with names, charges, and details of each victim of mob violence. From a personal view, exploring this map is one of the few experiences that I have had in my research of United States history where I have been deeply moved. I have poured over countless stories of violence throughout United States history but with this map and being able to see the names and relationships of each victim almost made me sick to my stomach and I am thankful for it. If any map can evoke that much emotion it has clearly portrayed whatever message it set out to, in this case, showing the sheer amount of horrors committed by mob violence throughout the United States.
Church and Hepworth’s “Racism in the Machine: Visualization Ethics in Digital Humanities Projects” hits the nail on the head in finding the ethical dilemma and difference between the two maps. Church and Hepworth correctly identify that the maps are products of the associations that they are published from, one looking to focus more on violence in the Deep South among African Americans and another suggesting that mob violence affected far more than just the African American population.
The comparison of these maps along with Church and Hepsworth’s piece has made me realize the importance of symbology and focus on a project because, with the wrong illustration, a point can be either completely ignored or featured with certain effects. Mapping ethics should guide cartographers, including myself, to correctly visualize their maps to convey not only the message they would like to convey, but a correct message.
[PICTURES REFUSING TO UPLOAD WILL REVISIT IN MORNING]
Of course, add the pictures, but this is already a very strong blog that relfects (sometimes personally) on the ethical implications of what we choose to include and what we don’t Well done Hank!