Imagery and Narrative: Reflections on Racism, the Flesh and the One New Man. by Michael Philliber
Imagery and Narrative I had recently retired from 20 years in the Air Force and became the stated supply (the regular student preacher) of this small-town church. There he was, one of my elders in his late 70s, and he was appalled that I, his minister, had purchased a Toyota. When I asked him what was so wrong with having a Toyota, he replied; “It was made by the Japs!” Needless to say I was startled by his comment, and so I stammered my way through the question, “Why does that matter?” The response was just as shocking as his statement. As he put it, he had grown up during World War II, and recounted how the government propaganda in the news during the time and on posters, hammered into him that the “Japs” were evil. And now there he was in 1999, some 54 years later, and he still couldn’t bring himself to purchase anything Japanese. Similar stories could be recounted from World War I and the way the imagery and narrative about the horrible “Huns” affected and infected social p...