Jessica Vasquez-Tokos & Kathryn Norton-Smith

The function of controlling images is ‘to dehumanize and control’ dominated groups (Collins 1986, S17). The social institutions that circulate controlling images do so to suppress less privileged groups, restricting minorities’ access to upward mobility, self-efficacy, and power of self-definition (Collins 1991). Controlling images are a hallmark of systemic racism, justifying ‘the creation, development, and maintenance of white privilege, economic wealth, and sociopolitical power…[rooted in] hierarchical interaction and dominance’ (Feagin 2000, 14). Controlling images are conceptually different from prejudice because they are ideological collective representations, not psychological. Prejudice involves negative emotion and stereotypes (Quillian 2006) whereas controlling images are systemic and cultural, existing beyond the affective and cognitive. Controlling images, prejudice, and discrimination are related in that controlling images provide a ‘strategy of action’ (Swidler 1986) for prejudice and discrimination. Swidler (1986, 273) conceives of culture...as influencing action ‘by shaping a repertoire or “tool kit” of habits, skills, and styles from which people construct “strategies of action”. Controlling images are cultural tools that offer ‘strategies of action’, thus bridging systemic racism, prejudice, and discrimination.

Jessica Vasquez-Tokos & Kathryn Norton-Smith