Kadir Nelson’s Brilliant New Yorker Cover

Say his name. Say her name. See their faces.

Knowing the names is one thing. Seeing their faces is another. Kadir Nelson’s brilliant New Yorker cover speaks to the idea that we all deserve to be seen and the history needs to be told. It also speaks to the idea that some of us aren’t seen until after death — and sometimes centuries after being enslaved. Nelson’s beautiful art is made even more poignant by the details of actual skin tone and color as at least 30 Black people are memorialized in great facial detail; their spirits live on despite their deaths.

The image is symbolic and detailed. George Floyd’s body holds the faces of a number of lynched Black people and refers to historical events that are part of the lineage of racial violence against Black people in the United States. You can see the smile lines in Breonna Taylor’s forehead. Nelson chose to include an image of Laquan McDonald — the Chicago teen shot 16 times by police — wearing his graduation gown and cap. It’s such a wonderful juxtaposition to the typical media portrayal of the teen wearing sagging jeans as he dies in the street. Little Aiyana Stanley-Jones, seven, killed by Detroit police in her home in 2010, smiles sweetly, her lovingly-cared-for braids…