Madera, California, 1967-69, A new arrival for "acculturation" and "relocation", Marion Palfi

Exhibition Label: "Intersection of Race and Gender," Mar-1999, Douglas Steward Gordon Parks's "Malcolm X Selling Newspapers" and Marion Palfi's "A New Arrival for 'Acculturation and Relocation'" present gender in two different public contexts. In Parks's photograph, Malcolm X boldly holds up a newspaper reporting political strife. His firm grip on the paper indicates his control of the situation, and his confident, side-long gaze suggests that he is fully awareof why the word "justice" has been placed in quotation marks in the newspaper headline. Malcolm X exudes the self-assurance of a man who believes that he belongs in the public sphere and that he can enact social change there. On the other hand, Marion Palfi's photograph features a young woman whose downcast expression testifies to her alienation. While Malcolm X defiantly raises his right hand, thrusting political issues toward the viewer, Palfi's figure looks dejected, and she draws her arms close to her body. Perhaps the blanket that she clutches serves as a double reminder of domestic life and traditional tribal culture. Certainly the row of identical, closed lockers forms a drab backdrop for this unhappy "new arrival," signifying the loss of her culture and her current anonymity. Taken together, Parks's and Palfi's photographs repeat the now threadbare cliché that women are ineffective in the masculine public sphere. However, Parks's work progressively depicts a black individual as empowered and confident, while Palfi's represents the confrontation between Euro-American and Native American cultures as Native disempowerment.