Racist past of ‘National Geographic’

‘NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’, the magazine synonymous with glossy photoshoots of unfamiliar cultures, has acknowledged, in unequivocal terms, that its “appalling” past coverage of different societies was racist.

The 130-year-old US publication, which has a global circulation of more than six million, issued an extraordinary mea culpa about its disparaging attitudes towards foreign cultures and non-white Americans in its latest edition, which explores the issue of race.

In an editorial titled ‘For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist’, Susan Goldberg, its editor, wrote that until the 1970s, the magazine “all but ignored” minority US groups, while using “every type of cliché” to present smaller nations as “happy hunters”. (© Daily Telegraph, London)