Black artists claim racial difference while critically distancing from racist criteria
Evidence
A Black professorial character in Nigger Heaven claims, in a dig at media suasion, that the advance of Black artists in White circles will not change White opinions: “Because the white people they meet will regard them as geniuses, in other words, exceptions.” — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 844 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
The point here is to study black art because it asserts its belonging to African- American culture by its technique, its historic and aesthetic references, not because it has been achieved by a black-skinned artist. At the same time, the reference to black identity, introduced by issues related to the most visible elements of this racial difference — skin color, hair texture, facial features - is widely used by a majority of visual artists as a fundamental focus of their creative process. Thus, the reflection consisting in outlining the parameters characterizing the analysis of what we call “black art” can be defined in regard to American cultural history, from which it has been and is still mostly missing. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2875 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
When the question is put directly, then, the white man agrees to give his sister to the black–but on one condition: You have nothing in common with real Negroes. You are not black, you are “extremely brown.” … This procedure is quite familiar to colored students in France. Society refuses to consider them genuine Negroes. The Negro is a savage, whereas the student is civilized. “You’re ‘us,’” Coulanges tells him; and if anyone thinks you are a Negro he is mistaken, because you merely look like one. But Jean Veneuse does not want this. He cannot accept it, because he knows. — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 251 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: White acceptance of exceptional Black artists leaves White racial opinions unchanged — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 844; Black nationalist art prioritized racial affiliation over aesthetic unity. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2884; Black art is defined by technique and cultural reference, not the artist’s skin color — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2875 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- White acceptance of exceptional Black artists leaves White racial opinions unchanged
#complicates(0.78) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 844 - Black art is defined by technique and cultural reference, not the artist’s skin color
#complicates(0.76) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2875 - White acceptance of black intellectuals requires denying their genuine blackness
#complicates(0.75) — Frantz Fanon, Constance Farrington, Black skin, white masks, 251 - Demanding minority art speak for its community reinforces that community’s marginality
#complicates(0.74) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 161 - Colorblind inclusion of Black authors is a covert form of tokenism
#complicates(0.73) — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 85 - Black nationalist art prioritized racial affiliation over aesthetic unity.
#complicates(0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2884 - Positive racial images can do ideological work that negative ones do
#complicates(0.72)