Magazine Cover Gone Wrong: A misconceived message about refugees

The sixth anniversary cover of the Conde Nast Traveller’s, which portrayed actress Priyanka Chopra, was a cover that brought up quite the attention and criticism on social media. The immediate thought that came to my head when I personally saw the cover was that its message could undoubtedly be misinterpreted - so it didn’t surprise me at all to see that it was criticized by people. The cover depicts Chopra with a white t-shirt that has the words “refugee” “immigrant” and “outsider” crossed out, pointing out the word “traveller”. This, in my opinion, makes it seem like refugees, immigrants or outsiders are not favourable and puts a negative meaning behind those words. 

It is a problem all around the world that when foreigners travel to other countries, they face discrimination due to them belonging to another nationality. They might be treated differently solely because they’re not originally from the place they are at, or most likely, taken advantage of. For instance, in Istanbul, which is where I live, some taxi drivers tend to charge foreign tourists more just because they think they won’t figure it out as they have to play in Turkish liras, a whole other currency, and they don’t really have an idea on how much a certain distance usually costs with a cab in Turkey. In short, it is quite possible that travellers experience numerous problems just because of their different nationalities. 

But that’s not the only word used in this cover - it also touches on the topics of refugees and immigrants. Refugees and immigrants also endure difficult conditions as they are usually going to a new country due to problems in their current country. Being in a hard enough situation already, they are liable to encounter acts of racism. Thus being a traveller clearly separates from being a refugee or immigrant - and putting those under the same category can easily come off as insensitive and give rise to criticism. Travelling and having to go elsewhere due to serious problems in your hometown is two completely different things, and the design of the t-shirt, in my opinion, kind of gives the idea that they are perceived as if they’re similar situations - which is potentially offensive towards refugees or immigrants.

The executive team of the magazine apparently claimed that the purpose of the cover was to make a statement against xenophobia - the fear and hatred toward foreigners. I find it believable that their actual intention was to call out xenophobic people and promote unity - however, it’s understandable how most people can interpret the cover in a different, rather insensitive way. Perhaps they could include a vector design representing unity and focus on the message of how all people should be treated equally, rather than trying to put a cross over words that people are quite sensitive to. There are many other possible options out there to shame the concept of xenophobia and raise awareness about it - so while I do believe that the intention behind the cover wasn’t bad, I agree with the public criticism that this is not a good cover to convey the message they wanted to convey. Especially the readers who have been in situations where they were treated unfairly due to being a refugee or immigrant, or simply a traveller - how did this cover make you feel, considering your experiences? 

I find it admirable that people shared their strong opinions regarding this cover through social media - it shows that there are self-aware people out there willing to get their message across. In the end, I choose to put aside the wrong editorial choices done by the magazine and interpret the cover’s message as something positive; no one should receive negative treatment just because they are a foreigner. The world is huge and it belongs to no one; so technically, we are all travellers in this universe!