The idea that everyone is equal has not been accurate throughout history, and Kimberly Drew has brought it to light. “For so many young people of color, we feel like we don’t have the luxury of exploring the liberal arts-society tells us that we have to take coursework to become high earners to make valuable contributions to the world.” (Drew 14) This perfectly depicts how people of color are pressured to be one way or another, or they are not useful in society. Instead of expressing the skills they excel at; they have to change themselves to be something they don’t want to be. When they go for what they want to be, they also face inequality of how companies and others see their works; let’s say that a black artist makes an art piece that is as good as a white artist piece. Still, the white artist won’t only be recognized more, but will also be put out more than the black artist to be appressed because of it. This will demotivate the artist and strain how they would make as the exposer isn’t there, so fewer opportunities would occur.
When Kimberly drew spoke about how there is no representation of the black artist in any classes or promoted in media, It was a shock which said to me. This makes me think about black creators’ representation on Instagram, Youtube, Twitch, Twitter, or any other media site. This is widely happening because whitewashing is a thing in both books and media, but if there were a black creator, they would not get the same exposure as a white creator. And since there is such a small collection of these creators that are to the likes of Ninja, or any other person, they would learn more than the same people with the same skill level as them. The popular excuses are that they are famous and it brings the platform better watch time, which interns make the company more money. But by diverse the pool of creators, this would pull more revenue in, but making more people feel included, and this would reach out to a bigger audience because of it. So what did Drew do when she learned about this? Well, she made her on a blog that would promote black creators and what they make. What happens by this is more people get exposed to a new art style and creators that they wouldn’t have beforehand, as other white creators buried them. Other companies should do this, not only for black history month because it’s good marketing, but year-round, exposing people that wouldn’t have beforehand by the mass of white creators taking the spotlight.
Now some people would say that this is unfair, and I tell why? They have been continuously pushed to the bottom of so many places, so why not have a dedicated section and not just for black history month. And this isn’t white guilt, which people circle jerk about to “feel bad” that past people have done and the privilege they get from being white. Instead of helping the Black creators promote and motivate them to continue forward with what they are doing, they make it a point for them to cry about and feel wrong about. And when Drew was to complain about this on her Facebook, showing how frustrated it is to be a person of color and hear these things, then the next day having that same professor saying Think about if I was an African American, but why would you? Why don’t you just think that it was wrong for these people to use it as an excuse to put it on them, instead of those affected by this every day? Then when she complained about this as well, she gets called in for the post, saying that she ‘misunderstood and said that if she can’t handle that, then why to join art history?”. Just because you wanna say that saying sorry is enough and acting like “pitty me” is better then just owning up to it and just shutting down everyone that tries to twist it, but instead he did the exact opposite and made it worse.
The takeaway I see from this book is to just be better than what we are doing now, give these creative people the outlet they need to grow because the system isn’t going to do that themselves, we the people have to do it. To move forward in life we have to first be equal to one another, get along with one another, and live without hate, with a superiority complex, because that is what racism is, think that the genetics that determined how much of a chemical goes into our skin cells to make it lighter or darker, that one is superior to the other is stupid. And it starts from us, from Gen z and Gen x to finally stomp out this hate, this dumb thing that survived for too long.
No comments:
Post a Comment