Is Kara Walker a white supremacist?
Here is a quote from Kara Walker: "I think really the whole problem with racism and its continuing legacy in this country is that we simply love it. Who would we be without the 'struggle?'"
I'm really conflicted about Kara Walker, she seems kind of neoconservative in her ideas, exploiting these stereotypes for sensationalistic gain in the still predominantly white wealth-driven artworld... As a black man, I can tell you, I do not "love the struggle", I am not a "happy victim" and do not like feeling subordinated day in and day out. When the Art Establishment buys into Kara Walker's work and holds her to such high esteem, are they really just feeding off of the same stereotypes these likely self-professed white "liberals" would claim to be denouncing but are secretly celebrating. It's not "the struggle" America loves so much but rather "white supremacy"! Her own words lend a sort of moral ambivalence to the motivational thrust behind her work. I personally believe that this equivocation is evil and lets white supremacy off the hook. Let's not forget that we never received reparations for 246 years of slavery + 100 years of jim crow and today's still lingering atmosphere of discrimination and oppression... And today, these stereotypes still have a very strong impact on my daily life... from the fact that my parents have very little (if any) wealth to hand down to me, my resume will elicit no greater chance of a job interview than a white convict (recent Princeton study), the Harvard IAT suggests most people still subconsciously prefer white over black (which will shade and shape all social interactions)... The more I become acquainted with her work, the more troubled I am by it. Her new show at the Whitney is entitled "My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love"... Is Kara Walker an apologist for white supremacy? Given what I've read about how she explains her own work, I think so. Even if what I've read may have been out of context, I would still like to problematize why she has been able to reach such critical acclaim in the artworld...
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1 comment:
Excellent post. Let's not forget Hollywood. Hollywood and the media plays a role in the denigration of Blacks in America. For example, Halle Berry. Ms. Berry gets awarded for demeaning portrayal of Black women and received an award for it(Monster's Ball). The mostly white critics gave rave reviews while Black reviewers were marginalized in the media.
Kara Walker's work is very disturbing to me as a Black woman and, frankly, blatantly racist/sexist. That's why her work is so popular with white art patrons because they like the fantasy of Black otherness. Just as consumers of hip hop are suburban whites, so are art patrons.
She's no different from sellout hip hop musicians and Black Hollywood stars who sell out our race in order to make a fast buck on feeding white supremacist fantasies of Blackness.
La Reyna
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