White Privilege vs Our Pain

A few weeks ago an image of a hand throwing up a symbol of a violent past was used to promote a housing organization in Kansas City. At the same time there was controversy over another piece depicting a kneeling flag figure made by a white artist. These two topics resulted in the meeting of around 50 artists of color to sit and discuss these issues. The group holding the meeting was upsetting to some white men for said group’s request that only people of color should attend.
The conversation that needed to be had was about cultural sovereignty. As marginalized groups. Asians, Latinos, Chicanos, Indigenous Peoples and Black Americans have been left out of this country’s history even though we have been crucial not only to it’s infrastructure but to it’s culture. When symbols from those struggles are sanitized and reproduced for white consumption it sucks all the air out of the history that we have had to scrape together.
Within the last few years symbols and vocabulary of Black Culture have been whitewashed and repackaged as sayings fit to be placed on t-shirts, wine glasses and tacky wall art. Indigenous regalia has been stripped of it’s meaning to add flair to festival wardrobe.
Latino culture is appreciated in a backhanded attempt to minimize our contribution to the pantries of white Americans. They will sing the praises of Taco Tuesday but are silent when the workers who harvested the ingredients to the food that they eat the rest of the week, are rounded up and deported. We want to hold onto these things for ourselves because we do not trust America to tell our story.