American Indian Movement

American Indian Movement

I had a lot of problems finding any kind of signs that were worth a blog post so instead I am going to be using the symbol that was used during this movement. Above we can see many things such as color that emphasize the words as well as the hidden message behind them. Typically, as a culture we have valued red to be something of emergency, to stop and look at immediately. Using red in the lettering as well as the picture depicts emergency. Another underlying issue I think the creators did not really think about was the fact that "redskin" is used as a racial slur but here we can clearly see the native American as having red skin. This may have been to make the connection for others but the main purpose of the color red was to depict emergency. There is low contrast, not really any shadows but an outlining of the main three word "American Indian Movement" to make them seem more bold than they already are. Some focalizers in this image are obviously the Indian with the peace sign coming out of the top of the head to depict feathers but the way the main words are spaced out also preforms as a focalize. At the very top of the image is the word "American", this was done on purpose. I believe this was done to emphasize the fact that they were too Americans and were not being treated as such so to prioritize being called American first, they placed that word at the very top of the emblem. Going back to touch on the Indian head, this serves as a representational icon. Key symbols that call to mind a narrative that we can all identify for starters is the peace sign. This was widely used in the late 60's into the 70's and could be seen at many protests. This hand signal serves the purpose of the peace sign as well as completing the look of a Native American, with traditional feathers being placed in the hair. Overall, there is much emphasis on the "American Indian Movement" from the bold lettering, to spacing and even the color to depict emergency.