Time’s Latino vote cover features non-Latino face
The man pictured behind the “M” in “TIME” is not Latino, according to a report. (Time Magazine)
By JORDAN FABIAN
Channel: Politics, Media
What’s wrong with this picture?
Time magazine’s upcoming cover proclaimed that “Latinos will pick the next president,” adding a visual exclamation point with the portraits of 20 Arizona Latino voters, or so we thought. The man pictured behind the “M” in “TIME” is actually Chinese-American, not Latino, according to OC Weekly.
The California publication’s Michelle Woo wrote Thursday: “A friend of mine, Michael Schennum, is the short-haired gentleman in the top row, center, behind the letter “M.” He is half Chinese and half white. Not Latino. Not even a little bit.
Schennum, who is a staff photographer for The Arizona Republic, wrote on his Facebook page, ‘“They never told me what it was for or [asked] if I was Latino.’”
A Time spokesman tells the Daily Intel blog:
“Over the course of three days Time photographed 151 people for the current cover … We took steps to ensure that everyone self-identified as Latino, that they are registered voters, and that they would be willing to answer our questions. If there was a misunderstanding with one of our subjects, we apologize.”
About shooting the pictures in Arizona, Time’s contract photographer Marco Grob explained, “The terms ‘Latino’ and ‘Latina’ have a vast identity of their own, so for the duration of this project we strove to break some of those stereotypes.”
As a non-Latino who covers Latino politics, I can understand that point of view. But does that justify making what amounts to a factual error on the cover one of the nation’s leading publications?
What do you think?
