‘Black’ Art and Racism in a White Country
From dark and lovely to “Go back to Africa.” Hello, Moldova.
About a month and a half ago, I wrote about a racially insensitive knick-knack in the Airbnb I rented during the week I spent in Thessaloniki, Greece. Just when I had all but forgotten that unfortunate watermelon-wielding black mama, the image of the made-in-Cuba ceramic doll, her black skin, her yellow dress with white polka dots, and her big red lips came back to me.
I’d just arrived in my latest city, Chișinău, Moldova, and as soon as Andrei, the check-in guy, opened the door to the Airbnb where I’d be spending my first three days, there she was. I was standing across from another representation of black womanhood in a work of art, but this one was so much different from the one that had been perched above my bed in Thessaloniki.