jeanette margaret

This collage, titled Making America Great, Again draws comparisons and forms connections between 1968 and now, specifically in the United States. In the years leading up to 1968, during, and after, there was a surge in the fight for civil rights. For example, people fought for the integration of public schools, opposition to and ending of the Vietnam war, black power movements, women’s rights, and more. Similarly, now groups are fighting to stop deportation and the separating of families, “Black Lives Matter” continues as a black power movement, third-wave feminists continue to march for pussy power, and LGBTQ+ members stop people on the sidewalks to spread awareness of their challenges. The desire for equal rights has not dwindled, but instead the urge to fight has recently been reignited. However, just as before, the silent majority has a fear of giving away things for free, including constitutionally given rights. The white man is once again in fear of losing the country to a “liberal mob” as well as being a minority. Once again, the United States is in a period of cultural anxiety. And in the case of both Nixon in 1968 and Trump in 2016, a presidential candidate monopolized on the silent majority’s fear of everything liberal.

For Making America Great, Again I chose to use collage as my medium because it effectively visualizes historical symbols while allowing me to make specific choices to alter how it is read. This includes choices such as which images are being used, how they are cropped, and their specific arrangement relative to the other parts of the collage. Any retelling of history will be biased because of a person’s ability to selectively choose. In this collage, individual images are arranged to visually and conceptually interact with one another, and ultimately illustrate the ideologies that lead to the emergence of both Trump and Nixon.

Starting with the bottom left of the image, there is a line of varying protesters from both 1968 and now. These include protesters part of movements such as “I am a man,” women’s rights, integration of schools, and anti-deportation. These images together are meant to illustrate the varying civil rights demonstrations. This line is paired with a row of (1968) policemen pointing guns at the group. This acts a visual for the underlying threat of police brutality. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Olympic athletes, are at the front of the line of protestors, raising their fists to bring attention to the black power movement. Back to back with the police offers, Martin Luther King Jr. stands over a crowd of yippies, juxtaposing the various fights for liberation. To the left, a screaming white man’s head is pictured to symbolize the fear of all this change, in addition to the disgust of a member of the LGBTQ+ community sitting on his head. This intersection of characters and movements is pictured to look chaotic and threatening, which is the point of view of the silent majority in relation to the ongoing change.

Next, the bottom right pictures the modern reenactment of the yippies in Grant Park, Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. In front of this, members of the “Black Lives Matter” movement hold an illegible sign. The image is backwards to make it difficult to read and to comment on how the movement is often over-looked. For example, a countermovement titled “All Lives Matter” exists to dismiss the BLM movement. To the right, a Trump head spits out an anonymous gang member with the hand of a white man holding a gun. This illustrates how the power system puts people against each other and in reality, it is the white hand pulling the trigger. Paired with this, a newspaper clipping quoting Trump reads, “When Mexico sends its people they’re not sending their best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime, they’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” This quote is meant to provide a direct insight to the point of view of those who feel threatened by change – specifically whites afraid of being a minority. The quote however, was originally used by Trump as a tactic in the election to rally people together using a common fear. 

Above all the chaos, three large, nude, white women are pictured in front of an American flag – the very symbol of a conservative America – because white women act as the very symbol of whiteness. One of the nude figures is reaching for the fist of Tommie Smith, and the white man to the right is visually intercepting this interaction. This is meant to portray the white man’s need to protect the white woman, as a way of protecting his own manhood. Simultaneously, The LGBTQ+ members body is literally turning the American flag into a pride flag, epitomizing conservative fear. To the right, the two white men in the newspaper cartoon read, “What do we do now, dad?” and in response, “We should have done the thinking and praying before this happened, son, but it is never too late. Let’s go to church and ask god’s help.” This is a pretty obvious depiction of the white man’s fear, while also showing the ridiculousness of it. In addition, the tie collaged on the cartoon is Trump’s tie, using imagery to force a direct correlation between this fear and Trump’s rise to the Whitehouse. To the left of this cartoon, half an image of Nixon emerging from the American flag is partnered with half an image of Hitler saluting. While this wasn’t necessarily meant to equate the two. I wanted to visually compare the body language of the two leaders as well as make the comparison that they both rose to power because of white anxiety. In addition, Nixon and the yippies’ peace signs, (to the left) can be compared to Hitler’s swastika, which was originally meant as a symbol for peace but turned into an excuse for hate. Monopolizing on a common fear seems to be a common thread for certain leaders to rise to power. Finally, the background image was taken during the Vietnam war, and was added to help create a chaotic atmosphere in the piece. 

Making America Great, Again uses collage to visualize the point of view of the silent majority in both 1968 and now and make visual and conceptual connections between images taken out of their original contexts. If we do not learn from history, it will no doubt repeat itself. All rights go to original sources of the imagery used in this work.