Diany
Rodriguez
Midterm
Project
Art
263
October
31st, 2018
As much as society may think racism
is an issue of the past, it’s an issue that takes different forms through time.
Recently, the misuse of force against minority by police officers have caught
the attention of many. This and videos of discriminatory actions have shine the
lights on groups such as Black Lives Matter. According to the BlackLivesMatter
website “Black Lives Matter is an
ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are
systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of
Black folks’ humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in
the face of deadly oppression.” In other words, it is a group fighting for
social equality. It started off after a member of the neighborhood watch known
as George Zimmerman shot to death a seventeen-year-old African American male
named by Trayvon Martin in the year of 2012 and was not originally charged.
This topic is important to me because I myself
and people I know have been discriminated against. During a summer while
heading back home from a relative’s house, I watched a police officer stop two
African American teen who were walking down the block. I recognized them
because we all attended high school together. The police officer asked what
were they doing around the neighborhood and went on to pat them down but they
were clean. When I talked to the boys they stated how this happens to them
frequently, when they are in the “white part of the neighborhood”. These teens
were 15 years old. No person, especially a teenager should feel that this is
part of their normal life.
I will create a website that will include media,
discussions, promote my racial bias training courses, and a link to an implicit
association test. With the media I will use pictures, videos, news coverage and
music to show racial issues that are happening but also show the strives of not
just African American but all minority. With this I can also help promote small
business owned by minorities which will hopefully keep people coming back to
the website. In the discussion I would put up a topic and members of my website
will be able to argue their belief. The topic would be about discrimination and
there will be rules while chatting in the discussion board. Such as no violent
or discriminatory language. The course involves educating about the systematic
racism and what one can do to fight off their hidden biases. The course was
specifically made for police officer, by creating the website I hope to lower
people in other professions and regular citizens. The implicit association test
also known as IAT was created by psychologist at Harvard University of Virginia
and University of Washington. “To measure unconscious bias”, according to
tolerence.org.
In a few years I see myself being a police
officers. This topic relates to my career because I do not want to become an
officer who racially profiles others as many are trained to do without knowing.
As a police officer I want to be able to help those who are racially
discriminated. Such as those African American who feel unsafe around officers
because they are always looked as criminals. I want to treat everyone equal as
it shall be.
In this world we have a hard time treating
everyone equal. Your nationality nor color of skin shall detect what kind of
person one is. We are all human and we all have feelings. No one shall feel
unsafe around those who are supposed to save your lives, such as police
officers. Sadly, we live in a world where racial bias goes on every day. With
my project I am hoping to catch many people’s attention, making them understand
that we must make a change within the “blacklivesmatter” movement.
The images below relate to the black lives matter
movement
“Watercolor Memoriam. In
this photo taken in DC at at Martin Luther King Day march, a woman holds up a
sign remembering Aiyana Jones, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown.
Image: Charissa Laisy”
“Tomashi Jackson is
part of Simone Leigh's Black
Women Artists for Black Lives Matter.
Jackson is involved in a lot of political and street activism. For this
work, Dajerria All Alone, she studied Josef Albers’ writings from the
1960s and drew comparisons to the civil rights movement. The color is albers,
while the images are from police-brutality cases and landmark court decisions
from the civil rights movement. The Supreme Court case Bolling v. Sharpe dealt
with segregation in Washington, D.C.'s public schools. “McKinney Pool Party”
references the 2015
incident at the Texas pool party where
a police officer restrained a black teenage girl in a bikini on the ground.”
“Yashua Klos’ artwork is
very personal to him. It is based on racial identity and his experience as a
black man. Klos, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago, likes to pull
imagery from his surroundings, which include the bricks from buildings and
streets. In his artwork, violence, police and the black male intersect to form
a tableau.”
“William Villalongo sold out of his cut-paper artwork the
first day of the Untitled Art Fair. His acrylic paper collage and cut velour work
depicts the black man’s place in society, often pushed onto fringes or hidden
away. Villalongo’s work can be found in the permanent collection of the Whitney
Museum, and the artist did a residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem. He also
curated the Black Pulp Show, about the ownership of the black image.”
“Derek
Adam gives us a different look at
the black body with his Floater series of acrylic
paint and collage on paper. The work depicts the black body at pleasure, which
we don't always see reflected in mass media. The artist points to the political
statements that African Americans make when they take a break, such as President
Barack Obama playing golf.”
Work Cited
Walker, Julie. “16 Artists Who Made Sure Black Lives
Mattered at Art Basel Miami Beach.” The Root, The Root, 12 Jan. 2017.
Simon, Caroline. “How Social
Media Has Shaped Black Lives Matter, Five Years Later.” USA Today,
Gannett Satellite Information Network, 15 July 2018.
“Test Yourself for Hidden
Bias.” Teaching Tolerance.
account, Black Lives
MatterVerified. “Black Lives Matter (@Blklivesmatter).” Twitter,
Twitter, 16 July 2018.
Stephen, Bijan. “How Black
Lives Matter Uses Social Media to Fight the Power.” Wired,
Conde Nast, 1 May 2017.
Smith, David. “The Backlash
against Black Lives Matter Is Just More Evidence of Injustice.” The Conversation, 19
Sept. 2018.
http://mcsilver.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/reports/Trauma-of-Racism-Report.pdf
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