Sir, - While browsing through a promotional booklet issued by An Post, called "The Mail", I was very taken aback by what I found. One of the illustrated features was called "Delivering the Message" - an interesting article about the need for humans to communicate and the many methods that have been devised of getting the message across.
Visual imagery can be a very powerful means of conveying a message because it often happens at a subliminal level without any conscious participation by the viewer. An Post, a State company whose business is communications, would be aware of this fact. Why then, to illustrate this article, would it choose to include an image of a naked black man running through the countryside with a spear in one hand and holding aloft a spike in the other with an envelope on the end of it? It bore no direct relationship to the text.
At a time when so many organisations are endeavouring to deal in an enlightened way with the insidious issue of racism, it is insensitive and unhelpful to use this type of imagery. It is also a missed opportunity to depict a black person as an educated, integrated member of Irish society, which can be the reality as well as the aspiration. - Yours, etc.,
Sheila Grace, Creative Activity for Everyone, Townsend Street, Dublin 2.