Volume 2
Continuing the theme of hardships and struggles the average black person went through during the civil rights era, Umbra Volume 2 focuses in on the struggles of being a black mother. They describe her as strong minded and determined and ask the question of “what the black man will do” in the aspects of protecting black women from the world and providing for their family financially, mentally and physically. This goes perfectly with the cover of the edition which depicts a black man dripping sweat down his face with wrinkled, tired hands from hard work covering his mouth. He has a look of tiredness and fear in his eyes as black men wanted so bad to provide for their families and give their kids a good life in a country where they were kept silenced ( the man has his mouth covered looking like he has so much to say, but he can't) and discriminated against, simply because of their skin color. The artists also take on the idea of not being understood by the world and white America. In one of the stories, a black young man by the name of Niko was seeing a white woman, but she became upset with him because he didn’t like the fancy places she did and couldn’t understand why. When she is taken to his world with the people he enjoyed and where he felt comfortable, he opens up to her about his dad being blamed and killed for a rape he did not commit. Carrying that with him caused him to be careful of his surroundings never wanting to seem suspicious and that is why he did not enjoy the fancy places she did because he felt he was not wanted and was constantly being watched. In the end the two split ways as they were just not a match, they were simply too different and came from two different worlds. Throughout this magazine, the language is raging using words such as “fire”, “lynching” and “freedom” to depict what they’ve been through and what they hope to overcome. As for the pictures they capture kids in their natural state going through everyday life. This goes back to the topics of strong black mothers and fathers, the future for these kids will be shaped by what their parents do so the pressure of working hard and making a change for the better is on for the black community or else their kids will go through the same oppression.