Racism: US media crops out Ugandan climate activist from photo

American news media, Associated Press- AP, has been accused of racism for cropping out Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate from a photograph taken with her white peers in Davos.

Ms Nakate released an emotional video statement, she said that for the first time in her life she "understood the definition of the word racism".

She said "various" outlets, including the US' AP news agency, had removed her from photos.

AP, which has since removed the cropped photo, said there was "no ill intent".

"The photographer was trying to get a picture out fast under tight deadline and cropped it purely on composition grounds because he thought the building in the background was distracting," the news agency's director of photography, David Ake, said.

"When we went back to add more pictures to the report, which we almost always do when we are working under very tight deadlines, we added additional pictures with different crops."

How did we get here?
Ms Nakate gave a news conference in Davos on Friday alongside fellow climate activists Greta Thunberg, Loukina Tille, Luisa Neubauer and Isabelle Axelsson.

She later shared an article by AP in which she was cropped out of a picture of the activists.

My heart cracked... #ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange @GretaThunberg https://t.co/QhtKIS0uo7 pic.twitter.com/APpP8bAJLO

— Lukwesa Burak (@LukwesaBurak) January 24, 2020

In a video statement posted on Twitter, she accused the media of racism.

"We don't deserve this. Africa is the least emitter of carbons, but we are the most affected by the climate crisis...You erasing our voices won't change anything. You erasing our stories won't change anything," she said.

"I don't feel ok right now. The world is so cruel."

Share if you can
What it means to be removed from a photo! https://t.co/1dmcbyneYV

— Vanessa Nakate (@vanessa_vash) January 24, 2020

Over 4,000 people have watched the video and hundreds shared.

Although the AP image was replaced with one that included her, the 23 year old said she had not received "any explanation or apology."