BITS & BOBS & ARTIFACTS SPEAKING OF US & TO US.
When dealing with the almost daily effects of white supremacy and cultural appropriation, you eventually reach a saturation point. That point is usually what drives my writing.
Saturation point was met on a Sunday morning while I was watching CBS Sunday Morning. There was a story about self-taught African American Folk artist, Bill Traylor. He'd been born a slave and lived through the Civil War, Jim Crow segregation and the great migration. The Smithsonian was featuring his art. The morning show interviewed Leslie Umberger, curator and self-taught Folk art expert.She proceeded to interpret what certain images Bill had used in his drawings, symbolized. I remember thinking: Everything she is saying, is filtered through the white gaze. She was interpreting the meaning behind the images with no frame of reference, no history or intergenerational legacy to draw from.
I guess what I really wanted to see, was a Black expert on African American Folk art. An effort could have been made, to make that happen.
It reminded me of the hundreds of episodes of "Antique Roadshow" I have watched. Nine times out of ten, the "expert" in African American Antiques, Native American Antiques and Asian Antiques are white men, the tenth, a white woman. I have been watching "Antiques Roadshow" for about 23 years and in that time I saw one Black man, who was an expert on Africana and one Japanese woman who was an expert on Japanese porcelain.
Some of the "experts" on 'AR" have really put a strain on the word expert. Someone had brought in a Native American artifact from the Pacific Northwest. The white male "expert" prefaced every line of his analysis with "I think it might be.." or "It was probably used for.." In another appraisal the white male "expert" was appraising a Native American Kachina carving. He was unable to determine if it was a carving of an Eagle or a Hawk. One other white male "expert" was appraising a Japanese "Good Luck" Flag, but could not translate the writing on the flag. I think a Japanese appraiser might have been able to help with that. Still yet another white male appraiser was valuing an Antique North African flintlock pistol. He actually said... "There's some Arabic writing on the barrel, I can't read Arabic, so I can't tell you what it says. It may be the makers mark." Seriously? What if it's a reknown Arabic metal-smith? Would that make it worth more? Did you care enough to ask , oh, I don't know, someone from an Arabic speaking country?? Another example, a...yep, white male, was appraising photographs of Native Americans participating in a "Wild West" show in the late 1800's. He pointed to a photo of a Brule Sioux man dancing and said..."Look at him, he is just having a good time. He got paid and is a warrior, reliving past times" I think a different perspective was in order....
I am in no way saying that a white person or a person not of the culture of the artifact, can't appraise or speak about that antique. It's about representation, balance and accuracy. We need to avoid a white washing of POC's history & culture. The words and history given to an artifact or antique, by a white "expert", quickly becomes "Fact", even if they are wrong. POC need to be front and center as keepers of their history to maintain it's truthfulness & accuracy.
I guess what I really wanted to see, was a Black expert on African American Folk art. An effort could have been made, to make that happen.
It reminded me of the hundreds of episodes of "Antique Roadshow" I have watched. Nine times out of ten, the "expert" in African American Antiques, Native American Antiques and Asian Antiques are white men, the tenth, a white woman. I have been watching "Antiques Roadshow" for about 23 years and in that time I saw one Black man, who was an expert on Africana and one Japanese woman who was an expert on Japanese porcelain.
Some of the "experts" on 'AR" have really put a strain on the word expert. Someone had brought in a Native American artifact from the Pacific Northwest. The white male "expert" prefaced every line of his analysis with "I think it might be.." or "It was probably used for.." In another appraisal the white male "expert" was appraising a Native American Kachina carving. He was unable to determine if it was a carving of an Eagle or a Hawk. One other white male "expert" was appraising a Japanese "Good Luck" Flag, but could not translate the writing on the flag. I think a Japanese appraiser might have been able to help with that. Still yet another white male appraiser was valuing an Antique North African flintlock pistol. He actually said... "There's some Arabic writing on the barrel, I can't read Arabic, so I can't tell you what it says. It may be the makers mark." Seriously? What if it's a reknown Arabic metal-smith? Would that make it worth more? Did you care enough to ask , oh, I don't know, someone from an Arabic speaking country?? Another example, a...yep, white male, was appraising photographs of Native Americans participating in a "Wild West" show in the late 1800's. He pointed to a photo of a Brule Sioux man dancing and said..."Look at him, he is just having a good time. He got paid and is a warrior, reliving past times" I think a different perspective was in order....
I am in no way saying that a white person or a person not of the culture of the artifact, can't appraise or speak about that antique. It's about representation, balance and accuracy. We need to avoid a white washing of POC's history & culture. The words and history given to an artifact or antique, by a white "expert", quickly becomes "Fact", even if they are wrong. POC need to be front and center as keepers of their history to maintain it's truthfulness & accuracy.
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