“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
I wrote the following introduction for a 2015 exhibition at Allegheny College that examined racism, and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, one year after the Supreme Court voted to gut key provisions of that law. Many of the questions we raised about structural violence and inequality have yet to be addressed by our cultural institutions and governments. In light of the tragic killing of George Floyd this week by a uniformed police officer, February’s killing of Ahmaud Arbery by a retired police officer and his son, March’s killing of Breonna Taylor while she was in her own home — and the many other wrongful deaths that have come to our attention in the age of cellphone videos and social media — we are repeatedly reminded of our nation’s deep structural violence. The problem is not new, but a more widespread awareness of it is. To my white friends and family I say this:
The bigotry your Irish and Italian great grandparents may have faced when immigrating to the USA in the 19th century is NOT AT ALL EQUIVALENT to the deep, structural racism experienced by generations of people of color in America. Click here to learn more.
Now is NOT the time to defensively proclaim that you’re not a racist.
However many black friends you think you have is inconsequential.
Please talk less, and listen more to people of color (the irony of me posting this point on my blog-soapbox is not lost on me).
Today we must become ANTI-RACISTS. We will do that by identifying inequalities and disparities, confronting and deconstructing biased ideas (especially those we hold ourselves), understanding the intersectionality of these ideas, and then pushing for legislative, education, housing, and tax policies that will close the gaps. Doing so will not just make our country safer for our black and brown neighbors and friends, but it will lift us all toward greater equity, prosperity, and democracy. So, I dusted off this essay and I’m bringing it to you on my blog. If you would like to read the artist interviews or download the full exhibition catalog, please click here.
TO MAKE A DONATION TO BLACK LIVES MATTER, CLICK HERE. Other places to donate: MINNESOTA FREEDOM FUND (direct bail for protestors), BLACK VISIONS COLLECTIVE (black-led, queer/trans-centered organizing work), and the NATIONAL LAWYER’S GUILD.
FOREWORD, Performing Blackness :: Performing Whiteness
Darren Lee Miller, Curator, January 2015
What does it mean when we hear that a person of color “acts white,” or that a person who appears to be caucasian “talks like she’s black?” People who are not white are often described as ethnic or racial, while those who are caucasian are rarely described by their race. And what about people whose racial lineage is neither black nor white? Racial binaries in the United States have been constructed on the premise that one is either white or other; and yet, if the 2010 census is any indication, we are already defining ourselves in multiple categories. And this doesn’t even begin to address how people in other countries think about race, ethnicity, and identity.
The artworks in this exhibition interrogate oversimplifying binaries, destabilize the often unexamined position of whiteness, and complicate other cultural constructions around race. Invited artists are Sandra Brewster, Steve Cole, Andrea Chung, Brendan Fernandes, Vanessa German, Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle, Ayanah Moor, James Seward, and Alisha Wormsley. The artists deploy visual texts in the service of asking uncomfortable questions, reflecting upon identity, and asking the viewer to consider his/her own role in building, enabling, or perpetuating stereotypes. And while categories may be limiting, they may sometimes offer safe and inclusive spaces for those within particular groups.
The idea for this exhibition came from the National Public Radio series Code Switch, launched in April 2013 to explore “frontiers of race, culture and ethnicity.” Some of the earliest stories focused on code switching, the practice of literally changing the grammar, syntax, and style of delivery of one’s speech in order to more appropriately match the expectations of a situation or peer group. For example, one may talk and act a certain way with her friends at a nightclub, but will probably speak and behave differently during a job interview. The practice raises questions about authenticity, (self)acceptance, assimilation, and cultural legacies. In other words, code switching points to the performative, fluid nature of identity construction. This exhibition explores the ways in which Afro-diasporic, Native American, Asian/ Pacific, and Latino identities contend to construct themselves in relation to a white identity so normative and privileged that it largely remains unnamed.
All of this is a very academic way to say that while race in America is everyone’s issue, the bulk of the problem -- and the majority of the responsibility for repairing the damage -- lies with the dominant (white) culture. In the December 1, 2014 issue of Vulture Magazine, comedian Chris Rock talked with Frank Rich about white vs. black racial positionality and our cultural reluctance to talk openly about it.
“I stopped playing colleges, and the reason is because they’re way too conservative. Not in their political views, but in their social views and their willingness not to offend anybody. Kids raised on a culture of ‘We’re not going to keep score in the game because we don’t want anybody to lose.’ Or just ignoring race to a fault. You can’t say ‘the black kid over there.’ No, it’s ‘the guy with the red shoes’ (1).”
And yet, for all the limitations of discourse on college campuses, with their trigger warnings and political correctness, my colleagues and I still felt that this exhibition would contribute to ongoing conversations at Allegheny College -- and communities around the country -- about racism, heterosexism, and institutionalized privilege; a triumvirate commonly referred to by Human Resources professionals and Administrators as “climate.”
This exhibition is timed to begin the day our campus celebrates the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the show ends just a few days after the conclusion of Black History Month; but, this timing was an accidental result of a gallery calendar that allows me a significantly longer period of time at the start of every spring semester not only for the run of exhibitions (five weeks, instead of the three weeks I usually get for fall semester shows), but also for planning, curating, and conceptualizing. On the one hand, I am aware that this exhibition plays into the College’s desire to be seen as an inclusive institution that is making hiring and admissions choices in order to raise its “diversity profile,” and on the other hand I know that such efforts are often seen as tokenizing gestures by the very people to which they are designed to pay tribute. To put it bluntly, if February is the month when we honor the contributions of Black Americans, then what are we doing the other eleven months? We need to face the paucity of our own good intentions to see that bringing in an African American intellectual to give a speech on the third Monday of January does not even begin to address the twin scourges of racial profiling and ghettoization that work to create a system of structural violence against people of color. One hundred fifty years after emancipation, our nation still has not effectively addressed the undemocratic effects of an economic system that was (and increasingly is, once again) predicated upon servitude, unequal access, and segregation.
In the past few months we’ve seen militarized police forces mount mechanized, warlike assaults against mostly peaceful protesters in cities across the nation. Store windows have been smashed and cars overturned by protesters in Oakland, California, two New York City police officers have been assassinated by a man seeking revenge for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Ferguson, Missouri burns in violent riots. After jurors did not indict the Ferguson PD officer who killed unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, or the NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner, we see mainstream TV news pundits proclaiming that this “isn’t about race,” and, “only racists talk about race.” I’m going to assume some of these people operate from a place of fear. I’m going to guess they are afraid to talk about race because they may be called racists. Or worse, they worry they may inadvertently say racist things. But what is bigotry if not a manifestation of fear of “the other?” The real problem is that so many people are unwilling to see their own racism for what it is because they have a mistaken belief that only “bad” people say and do prejudiced things. What is clear -- regardless of how forensic evidence in the Ferguson case was handled -- is that the riots in Ferguson and the protests around the nation are not just about the killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown (and Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice, and Akai Gurley, and Ezell Ford, and Amadou Diallo, and...), just as the protests and revolutions throughout the Middle East following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi weren’t just about dissatisfaction with working conditions of street vendors in Tunisia. The problems are integral parts of our cultural and economic systems.
According to the Center for American Progress, people of color account for over two thirds of the U.S. prison population, but make up less than 30% of the overall population. One out of every three black men will go to prison in his lifetime (2). A report by the Department of Justice found that “Blacks and Hispanics were approximately three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than white motorists. African Americans were twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police (3).'' As Chris Rock says in his Vulture Magazine interview,
“I would love to be a 60 Minutes correspondent. I’d be in Ferguson right now. I’d do a special on race, but I’d have no black people. When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before. So, to say Obama is progress is saying that he’s the first black person that is qualified to be president. That’s not black progress. That’s white progress (4).”
So then, what is Whiteness? Does a person have to be descended from caucasian Europeans to enjoy the privileges of Whiteness? For many of us, being White means that we are more likely to have gone to schools with fully-funded budgets. It means we are more likely not only to have the means to go to college, but to have the support needed to come out the other end with a four-year degree. It means we are less likely to be stopped by the police, and when we are pulled over, we are more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt. It means that even when we are charged with crimes, we are less likely to be found guilty. And when we are found guilty, we are less likely to receive maximum penalties. It means that when our white children are playing outside our houses with toy guns, it is very unlikely they will be shot by the police. When a black artist friend and I visit museums and galleries, I am likely to receive the first offer of a handshake, and he is likely to be mistaken for security or housekeeping staff by other museum visitors. Being white (and male), for many of us, means that we have to work half as hard for twice as much. That's why there is no such thing as “White History Month.”
I’d like to thank Jaysa Alvarez ’15, and Soledad Caballero, PhD for helping me to think through early drafts of this essay, Gwen Singer ’15 and Jonathan Yee ’17 for their help in doing preliminary research and conducting artist interviews, Kazi Joshua for encouraging me to move ahead with the project, and Ayanah Moor for helping me to see my own privilege, cultural blind spots, and racism. The project has been a journey of discovery and growth for me personally, and it is my sincere hope that the works in this show will spur conversations that are long overdue. Performing Blackness :: Performing Whiteness is part of Allegheny College’s Year of Voting Rights and Democratic Participation, which celebrates the 50th anniversary in 2015 of the Voting Rights Act and explores the state of civil rights, broadly defined, in the world today.
This exhibition was made possible, in part, with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for Collaborative Undergraduate Research in the Humanities at Allegheny College, as well as contributions from the following departments and offices at Allegheny College: the Art Department, Black Studies, Dance and Movement Studies, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Political Science, the English Department, the Center for Intercultural Advancement and Student Success, and the office of Diversity and Organizational Development.
Other support comes from the Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts (PPA), the regional arts funding partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency. State government funding comes through an annual appropriation by Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. PPA is administered in this region by the Arts Council of Erie.
NOTES
1. Rich, Frank. “In Conversation. Chris Rock. What’s Killing Comedy. What’s Saving America,” Vulture Magazine, December 1, 2014. <http://www.vulture.com/2014/11/chris-rockfrank-rich-in-conversation.html>
2. Kerby, Sophia. “The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States.” March 13, 2012. <https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/>
3. American Civil Liberties Union. “Department of Justice Statistics Show Clear Pattern of Racial Profiling.” April 29, 2007. <https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/department-justice-statistics-show-clear-pattern-racial-pro$ling>
4. Rich, Frank. The whole interview is worth reading, see the link in the first footnote.