Cropping out a Black climate activist from a press photo was no accident

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate
Afroze Fatima Zaidi


The Associated Press (AP) has come under fire for cropping a Black activist out of a group photo taken at the Davos 2020 climate summit.

Vanessa Nakate, a 23-year-old climate activist from Uganda, was heartbroken by the incident, as she told Buzzfeed:

I cried because it was so sad not just that it was racist, I was sad because of the people from Africa.

It showed how we are valued. It hurt me a lot. It is the worst thing I have ever seen in my life.

“Completely unacceptable”

Nakate also shared a moving personal video on Twitter describing how she felt about the racist incident. She expressed her disappointment in the media and said the effects of climate breakdown on African people weren’t being discussed:

Related articles

Meanwhile, activist Greta Thunberg described the incident as “completely unacceptable”:

Not an accident

Moreover, people have criticised AP‘s decision to crop Nakate out of the photo saying it’s indicative of a wider problem:

Also, the fact that Nakate is both Black and a woman can’t be removed from the equation:

And erasing the work of people from the Global South is particularly worrying given the disproportionate burden on them as a result of climate breakdown:

While Thunberg has recently received a lot of exposure for her climate activism, it’s important to note she’s not alone. Because young Black, indigenous and other POC activists around the world have similarly been working at the grassroots to tackle climate chaos. So whitewashing climate activism is both racist and counter-productive. Especially since it’s so many young People of Colour who’re leading the fight against the climate crisis.

Featured image via YouTube/ Hub Culture

We need your help ...

The coronavirus pandemic is changing our world, fast. And we will do all we can to keep bringing you news and analysis throughout. But we are worried about maintaining enough income to pay our staff and minimal overheads.

Now, more than ever, we need a vibrant, independent media that holds the government to account and calls it out when it puts vested economic interests above human lives. We need a media that shows solidarity with the people most affected by the crisis – and one that can help to build a world based on collaboration and compassion.

We have been fighting against an establishment that is trying to shut us down. And like most independent media, we don’t have the deep pockets of investors to call on to bail us out.

Can you help by chipping in a few pounds each month?

The Canary Support us

Related articles