My study is an insiders' account of the many ways black people are percieved and how selected images have affected the black psyche. I am a photographer who identifies as black and gay. For more than 20 years I have been committed to deconstructing racism, sexism and homophobia through challenging photographic imagery. Conventional visual representation of black culture contributes to the construction of stereotypes. Artists, including filmmakers, musicians and the media, have used various codes to depict black identity. In the media, for example, present illustrations of black "likeness" are often non-existent when it comes to mainstream magazines and in newspapers, images that deem appropriation are predominately criminals, pop idols, or sports figures. These messages propagate a falsehood where in the first scenario, black beauty rarely exists, and secondly, the inherent "natural" talent of black people compels them to be "first-rate" at stealing, music and sport. Here there is no room for evolution or progression into a whole human being.

Due to the shifting nature of the political climate and social "status quo", the connotations of this system are in constant transformation, but it is certain that these misrepresentations are often painful and soul destroying. Bell Hooks acknowledges that "Stereotypes, however inaccurate, are one form of representation. Like fictions, they are created to serve as substitutions, in standing in for what is real".

So what is real?
That is, has the black community been successful, in repositioning the understanding of black identity and have contemporary artists overcome what appears as an ever present colonial encoding? Better still, is it compulsory to be an insider in order to "tell it like it is" or has the metamorphosis of the battlefield migrated into an inclusive open-air amphitheatre?

In order to answer these proposed questions, I would like to create a platform for discussion. Art is not created in a vacuum, so the implications of when, where, why and who created it, negates or confirms the role in which art is meant to play. In order to explore current trends, analysis needs to derive from historical references. This system exposes the various significations of codes, which will become more accessible and apparent. Two well-known photographers, James Van Der Zee and Walker Evans, who both worked during the 1930's in America, created images which at first glance suggest the New Negro.^a

Van Der Zee's photograph Couple wearing racoon coats, 1932 (fig.1), shows the models returning the gaze. The man is seated inside the Cadillac - today still a status symbol in the African American community - posing with hands gently clasped. There is no doubt it is his shiny luxury automobile. "Standing by her man" is his beautiful lady. All that is missing is the soundtrack from the American sitcom The Jefferson's "…we're movin on up to the East Side 'cause we finally got a piece of the pie…". ^b
During that same year, Walker Evans arrived in a Cubac "in the throes of social and cultural uprising".² His photograph Havana Citizen, 1932 (fig.2) portrays a handsome, impeccably dressed black man, occupying the centre of the frame, standing on a street corner. The man seems isolated from his environment and is not returning the gaze. Although we can only see the backs of several other men, returning the gaze. Although we can only see the backs of several other men, they appear to be white, so does the shoe shine boy. Although the subject appears elegant in his stance, dress and demeanour, the photograph depicts a detached reality. Here the codes deviate from an idealised vision of the future, which Van Der Zee's entire portfolio suggests.^d

These comparisons at first glance seem valid, yet on closer inspection, the codes are actually more complex. The gender and skin color of the subjects, in addition to the intricate nuances of the settings, indicate an inherent presence of the colonial gaze and its by-products. Firstly, Van Der Zee has chosen models who are light-skinned; this reads like a direct response to an internalised conditioning, which black people during that time were informed by, still at work today. Evans' male subject on the other hand is dark-skinned. Here, Evans also concocts another global cliché of the black man. The viewer is fully aware of his racial identity because the skin of the man is very dark. The news stand in Evans' photograph is overflowing with white models decorating the front covers of each magazine. In this sense the subject is deemed invisible; there are no other reflections of his being. Even the shoe shine boy, a chore which is usually reserved for black men, is white.

Van Der Zee's photograph in contrast, frames a background of intact Brownstones indicating a prosperous uptown home, where one could argue he creates a "model" package for the advancement of black people. The photograph suggests, " We are living in our own houses, driving our own cars"…no longer in servitude of colonial rule. However, Van Der Zee's vision is in a sense subtler to the overt codes used by Walker. Both images play heavily on codes that have not yet been disengaged from the white supremacist gaze or language.



During the sixteenth century, religious practise associated the color black with sin. Albert Bome suggests, "There probably never was a time when artists used black without symbolic or ethnic significance".³ This notion has transcended through time. Many so-called scientists, theorists and self-appointed spokesmen thrusted their inverted philosophies onto the identity of black people. In their eyes, we were "natural born" sinners - another justification for slavery.

From its infancy, slavery relied heavily on stereotypes. These myths constituted the idea of Otherness^e and allowed black people to be pigeonholed into an inhumane existence. The slaves' sole purpose was to serve, and in doing so, the slaves were supposedly 'better off'. This form of "enlightenment" was the basis for colonial brainwashing.

Focusing on the visual representation of black physiognomy, skin tone, and gender facilitates a constructive means of decoding images pertaining to black identity and black culture. Within this context, it is quite apparent that European visual portrayal of black culture created a schism in which the visual representation of black women and black men was structured into a contrasting degradation.

Much of this harsh differentiation originates from a racist patriarchal society, which continues to remain in power.

For me and other fair-skinned women, one look in the mirror suffices to remember the desires of the white man to conquer black women during colonial America. In a valiant effort to recount our family history my mother, Jean Henderson, set out to document that untold story.^F Documentation, especially from the 19th century was scarce, partly because the laws dictated that children born of slave women could not inherit the status of their father and the laws also prescribed that written documentation was off limits to blacks. Yet she was able to conclude we are direct descendants of mulatresse Sally Hemings, one of President Jefferson's favourite female slaves. What is clearly evident from the photographs (dating from the 1890s - present) Henderson compiled, is that we "all" possess light skin.

In the same way that the slave masters raped the land, they raped their female slaves. These women were mere chattel, they had no identities - they were not seen as individuals. Eventually, due to this hybridisation, some of the light-skinned and fine featured (most probably with "good hair")^g female slaves were elevated from "field nigger" to "house nigger". Kobena Mercer coins this process as a "pigmentocracy" - based on skin-tone. Their European features and pale color established a more palatable fantasy to satisfy the white supremacist desires and gaze. Having access to the "big house" enabled these servants to enjoy "easier" work, as well as other advantages but most importantly it created the beginnings of a divide between light-skinned and dark-skinned blacks.^h Spike Lee's feature film School Dazeⁱ explores this split. Parts of the black community felt he was airing "our dirty laundry" to the masses, but others, myself included, believe that dialogues about skin color need to come "out of the closet".




Shortly before and after the end of slavery in the United States, images of black people began to emerge in advertisement and fine art. A quick glance at two famous examples of European art illustrates how both mimic a similar aesthetic of the "here to serve you" vogue, The Beloved by Dante Gabriel Rossetti,1865 (fig.3) and Manet's Olympia,1863 (fig.4). Though to his credit Manet did create in Olympia a woman - for the first time in the history of the nude - who dared to return the spectators' gaze. At this stage in history Olympia's status and gender clearly overrides her racial identity, for her social standing as a prostitute allows her to be viewed through an almost similar lens black women were seen through.

Olympia is representative of women in general, regardless of skin color as she was the first woman to return the (male) gaze - no longer only objectified.

During the turn of the 20th century, Nancy Green's (fig.5) image probably became one of the most exploited ones, in African American visual history. While mainstream imagery of black people at that time was restricted to servitude, exotic, or as ornamental devise, hers was the stereotypical look of what became known as the "mammy" caricature. Dark-skinned, bold featured, with large breasts and wearing a "do-rag", Green happily returns the gaze and appears to be just thrilled to oblige "massa" when ever and where ever. Yet, as stated previously, the majority of female servants were light-skinned. This depiction of Green as Aunt Jemima was pure propaganda. She was the epitome of "black, a term that in its brusque utterance, contained a white supremacist sense of racial difference, personal contempt, and oddly enough, complexity that came to define those new African people".⁴ Her appearance created a myth, which separated her from the elitist "employers", and by doing so rid them guilt-free. This image also rendered light-skinned women invisible and created a legacy of subservient roles in Hollywood signposted for dark-skinned womenj. The symbolic information in this image was yet another clever ploy, loaded with codes that will become explicit throughout this paper.



In sharp contrast to the Aunt Jemima Pancake advertisement campaign, a less stereotypical representation can be found in African American artist Rex Gorleigh's watercolor Planting (fig.6). Rex Gorleigh came from an educated art background, he studied in New York, Paris, Helsinki and Finland, and later returned to his birthplace, North Carolina. Between 1930-1940, Gorleigh like many black artists (both modern and folkk), felt the need to reflect and remember where he came from. His preoccupation lies in the intent to "go back to his roots". In his watercolor, the central figure is a brown-skinned woman, bent over to plant a stem. She is not frolicking in the fields but working hard. She has no time to pose, smile or gaze. The shape of her nose mimics her large breasts and backside. The gentle, shapely curves and composition could represent a romantic memory of his grandmother and her generation. In order to survive, workers were of a strong build and due to the "pecking order", were darker skinned. Gorleigh has created a more realistic model representing many turn of the century black women, and in doing so has dispelled some of the myths surrounding Aunt Jemima.



The period between 1920-1930 saw a remarkable courageous spirit in the crew of artists who shared an uplifting vision of a new era, the Harlem Renaissance. Although this movement was conceived in New York, the "ripple-effect" pervaded throughout America and Paris. Here artists finally experienced a "new vigour and self-determination which would result in an art concerned with black identity".⁵ As these artists and business owners began to prosper, a new middle class emerged. Visual artists now had a black audience who could afford to buy art. In many ways they were buying into or confirming a new and improved lifestyle. In Harlem, the jazz musicians who had not already ventured to Europe were attracting unprecedented audiences. Whites flocked to Harlem. Diana Vreeland (editor of Vogue) said, "I was never out of Harlem in the early Twenties".⁶ In Paris and New York, artists including Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson, Billie Holiday, James Van Der Zee and Hattie McDaniel, created identities which were breaking existing stereotypes while at the same time were paradoxically further appropriating the norm.^L

Josephine Baker, like many expatriates became frustrated with the oppressive atmosphere of racism in the States. Exhausted from "paling up" Baker sought fame in Paris, because American Broadway productions saw her as too dark. One of the first shows she starred in "Josephine Baker and La Revue Negre" was marketed using French artist Paul Colin's posters. Colins said the following after their first encounter: "Dressed in rags, she was part boxer kangaroo, part rubber woman, part female Tarzan. She contorted her limbs…crossed the stag on all fours, her kinetic rear end becoming the mobile centre of her outlandish manoeuvres…".⁷



In one of Colin's posters (fig. 7), Baker is illustrated in a cage, like the animal Colins callously described earlier. Colins manages to capture her signature movements, yet she seems so vulnerable with legs wide open, breasts exposed and on closer inspection, a silhouette of her bulbous behind can be seen under an almost transparent mini skirt. The cage fragments Baker and her view, as well as the gaze of the spectator. It almost appears as if she has been carved up like a rack of lamb.

This poster served as a conduit for the aesthetic transfer of the early notion of black beauty. The time was circa 1920 and Hitler was busy organising his camp of anti-everything, except Aryan values. Paris in comparison to the rest of Europe enjoyed a "free spirit", but at a cost. At this point, Paris was the "new home" of the formaldehyde Hottentot Venus.^m Although Baker was revered and genuinely admired, she won this acclaim in spite of the atrocious stereotype which still bears its ugly head.

In an attempt to make Diana Ross' figure resemble the essence of the 'black woman", Motown Records "padded" out all of her outfits, so she appeared to posses that "classic" physique. Yet, in contrast Ross was made to wear straight wigs, to enable the Supremes to enjoy "cross-over" appeal, which they succeeded in.

Both stars endured under the banner of what WEB DuBois first described as "double-consciousness"ⁿ. So even though Baker was an instant success in Paris, she had no choice but to succumb to the romanticised European image of exotic jungle bunny.



At first glance, the work of Dawoud Bey (fig.8) appears to share certain codes of the posters Colin designed. Firstly, the figures seem to emerge from behind bars. Bey uses a concept, which relies on multiple photographs to create a whole; it is also reminiscent of the cubist style. The model's gazes are abstracted by the deliberate cropping of the lens. And like Baker, the models are fragmented. But here the similarities cease. The girls are clothed. They are fully aware of the shoot and seem in control of how they want to be seen. Their fashion signifies the important elements of black youth culture, which the viewer consumes. By seemingly dissecting his models, in fact, Bey is interested in showing the multidimensional character of each individual. His cropping is done out of love. By appreciating each part of his sitters, Bey allows the viewer to behold the complex identities within a group often sorely misunderstood and misrepresented.

Bey, a contemporary African American photographer, employs a "20" x "24" Polaroid camera. The portrait Mary and Louise is part of a series which concerns itself with young black high school students, and how they see themselves. The basic nature of the project educates the youngsters about photography and representation. Yet it also educates the uninformed gaze about the sitters. By using a large format camera, Bey is able to capture more than a snapshot. He adds, "These photographs continue my interest in interrogating the human subject as a site of the emotional and psychological drama. They also continue my ongoing concern with the portrait and issues inherent in photographic representations of people of color. By allowing the subject to return the scrutinising gaze of the viewer, I seek to decolonize the picture making process by putting both subject and viewer on equal footing".ª

Artists and their sitters have chosen to either promote stereotypes or reaproprite black identity. In Bakers' case, the representation illustrated her as an entertainer who was a product of that era. Today entertainers like Grace Jones or lil' Kim, often choose to use many codes which Baker embraced because it "sells". The greatest revelation is that black women now own a spectrum of decision.






Racial stereotypes pertaining to black men formulated myths that were originally meant to keep them "in their place". This dehumanised collection of notions paralleled an actuality more a kin to an animal, as opposed to a "proper man". Accordingly, in the late 18th century, George Cuvier, a Swiss anatomist observed that, "The projections of the lower parts of the (Negro) face, and thick lips, evidently approximate to the monkey tribe".⁸ These misleading identities were fabricated to create the Other, and therefore insure white patriarchal supremacy. Mercer argues, "Shaped by history, black masculinity is a highly contradictory formation of identities, as it is a subordinated masculinity".⁹

Although these compilations of misrepresentations parody popular belief, they do not tell or visualise reality. "Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us and them", states Gayle Ward in Crossing the Line, a book examining "passing" within a social and political context.¹⁰ This dichotomy creates a misinformed canvas in which privileged artists, like "scientists", can run wild with exotic and sometimes erotic sentiment.

In late 1930's Germany, the exhibition "Degenerate Art" was conceptualised in response to an initiative Hitler lead which condemned over 5,000 works of art. In his effort to "cleanse the nation" Hitler ordered the work, which had been declared representative of decomposition, to be gathered and burned. Many well-known artists whose work came under fire included; Braque, Chagall, Delauney, Moholy-Nagy, Mondrian and Picasso, to name a few. On the wall of the gallery, a large sign stated: "The niggerizing of the music and theatre as well as the niggerizing of the visual arts was intended to uproot the racial instinct of the Volk, and to tear down blood barriers".¹¹

Hans S Ziegler's Entartete Music,1938 (fig.9) was the cover of the catalogue to the " Exhibition of Degenerate Art". The illustration renders a black man whose physiognomy resembles a monkey; it is difficult to refer to the figure as a man, his lips, nose and eyes appear too large to be human. On the lapel of his tuxedo is the Star of David^o and he is playing a saxophone, that seems to play to the background. This image is so inundated with signifiers propagating the extinction of blacks, jews and in short - all "primitive" people. The darkness of the skin refers to "sin" and the dark "unknown jungle". The codes create a gesture that indicates a wish to bid farewell - a sending home, "where these animals belong". The saxophone pointing to the background literally suggests the backward "niggerish" music, which has fallen on deaf ears.

Yet, the biggest fallacy, in relation to the identity of the black man, is in the conception of the big black phallus. "According to Johnson (a sea captain) in 1623, they were 'furnisht with such members as are after a short while burthersome unto them".¹² This was another European mainstream concoction that "saw" the black male as a kind of three-legged monster. Rather than glorify their physicality, real or not, it made more sense to dehumanise the black man. In course, this myth sanctioned white men to maintain the upper hand and deterred white women from conjuring up desires of the "bigger is better" projection. Instead, they were repulsed by bestiality, and had no remorse for the capture and bondage of their loathsome subjects.



Robert Mapplethorpe, although an obvious target, continued this tradition of depicting black male sensibility. Although he has reportedly said that this was not his intention, Mapplethorpe's black male nudes series is rich with stereotypes and fantasies. ALL of his models have large members. In Man in Polyester Suit (fig.10) he has left the "well endowed" subject, nameless. Mapplethorpe crops the model, in a way that the image becomes fetishp. The model is alone, which alludes to a one on one mis-en-scene. The dark skin is against a light suit, with a huge limp penis protruding from the unzipped pants. The end of the penis looks shiny; all of which suggests that, the photographer or the spectator is fantasising about a quickie. The cheap suit signifies the model has a job but he is definitely not a high flyer on Wall Street. If Mapplethorpe was truly trying to break down the stereotype of the black man, why did he not choose less endowed men? One explanation could be that even Mapplethorpe's homosexual gaze and desire could not be overturned due to his conditioning. He was not in the colonial sense, threatened by the notion of the large phallus, but when he saw black men - he saw big black dick

John Berger notes, "The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe…We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice. As a result, what we see is brought within our reach - though not necessarily within arm's reach."¹³ Mappelthorpe might have tried to infuse the post modern arena with the black male nude but his shots do not satisfy the painful injustice which black men have, in some cases, been forced to coped with. "Alice Walker pronounced in her novel Meridian (1976) as the ultimate sin: the turning of real, thinking and feeling people into Art."¹⁴

John Bergers' previous statement confirms my stance on Mapplethorpe's visualisation of the black male. Yet in the sentence, "To look is as an act of choice", I see a noteworthy fallacy. It has not always been a privilege for some marginalised people to look, or even be looked at!q Less than 20 years after the lynching of Emmett Till, Berger's book was published. Ways of Seeing has its merit, yet from this sentence alone, the fundamental gaze of the "multi-dimensional lens", has gone amiss.

The brutality that surrounds Till's premature death, is a direct indication of the state of being that the black man found himself absorbed in and oppressed by. Even the tag "you can look but don't touch" has no relevance here - unless the black male spectator's choice is death. During the slave embargo, many slaves in fact did choose to "jump ship", rather than die at the hands of the white slave master. So black men did have choices, they could tolerate oppression or they could take their lives. At least the last option manifests him with a dignity, not found in life.

Emmett Till's murder, in 1955, served as a catalyst for the NAACP.r This period, in America albeit problematic, was also a highly charged and uplifting juncture for blacks and their supporters. This is not to say that overnight transpired a utopian society, in fact, simultaneously a violent under current was felt throughout the nation. The KKKs were strong, the police brutal but the spirit of the slogan "Black is Beautiful" was in the hearts of the black public. Finally the realisation of a black identity, formulated by the black community, seemed possible. The influence of African culture began to permeate all neighbourhoods, fashion became more Afrocentric, black people began to wear dashikis, Afro hairstyles and assume traditional African names. Angela Davis, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Isaac Hayes, Stokely Carmichael, and Nina Simone, all embraced an individual Nubian look. Davis wore an immaculate Afro, King assumed the intelligent spokesperson role, Hayes was clean-shaved and Simone's luxurious braids were an indication of attitudes to come. They were self-made icons who negated past codes of representation and instead became the forbearers of an aesthetic black beauty.



In Dana C. Chandler, Jr.'s American Penal System…,1971, (fig.11) the fruits of the 60's are precisely provocative. His black male nude is inundated with codes that show the fragmentation and the "ongoing" bondage, which has affected black male sexuality. Yet, in the erect penis, shackles and all - there is optimism. He is rising to the occasion. Such was the militancy of that time; a defiance that sent signals to the American government that attitudes had to change. In principal many policies did shift, yet in practice, remnants of inept politicians and mandates have, as Martin Luther King stated in his March on Washington speech, "America has given the American people a bad check, one that has come back marked insufficient funds -but we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt…"¹⁵.

Ajamu and Chris Stevens are two contemporary British artists whose work addresses perceptions and identity. Ajamu (a Yoruban name, which means one who, seizes after a fight) is a black gay photographer and Stevens is a white heterosexual painter.


Ajamu's photo Body Builder in a bra, 1990 (fig.12) depicts the seductive muscular back of a black man. The model does not return the gaze, his arms are open, and he is cropped tightly, he wears only a bra. The background recedes into darkness and the lighting catches the contour of beautiful toned muscles, to reveal his acute definition. Here Ajamu evokes and transcends many codes. The bra serves as a hint to femininity, maybe the feminine side of a black man. Yet, the stretch in the fabric of the white bra points to the tension which society has created, through misogynist values and the tendency to ignore the feminine black male factor. Could this be the reason for the model defiantly turning his gaze, away from the viewer? Postcolonial imagery around the black male identity does not support this side of him. We see the sportsman, the rapper, the criminal - even Michael Jackson with his genius and billions of record sales, is not allowed to demystify the myth. Instead, Jackson has been vilified by the media.^t



In Chris Steven's painting (fig.13) entitled Stud, 2002, central to the frame is a clothed young black man, returning the gaze. He is cropped just below the hip. A partial horse emerges from the black background. Here the delicate play of chiaroscuro adds to the satirical elements present. The models' stance is assertive, without being confrontational. The title, Stud, distracts - it is confrontational and seems to be representative of colonial sentiments. Stevens defends the title, "It's was an ironic gesture, with the combination of a black guy and a horse in the painting, it started to become too cliché, so I pushed the horse further back into the background by covering it with more black."¹⁶ The title, he suggests is more of a wake up call to his various buyers, most of who are white gay men. Yet, has racism evolved to the extent that a white voice can be ironic? Stevens' subtle message within his audacious title compounds rather than subverts.



The black community was outraged when filmmaker Quentin Tarentino's Pulp Fiction used the word "nigger". In the script, John Travolta calls Samuel Jackson a nigger. Until then, there was an unspoken code which proposed that blacks could say the "N" word amongst themselves but it was politically incorrect, for whites to utter the word. This type of wordplay is similar with respect to the gay community and our reapropriation of the word queer.

Today niggers and queers are still limited and controlled by the hierarchical system of a heterosexual white patriarchy. The balance has not shifted enough for dominant culture to readdress stereotypes because we are not treated "equally" and deconstruction of these codes is both personal and multidimensional.

Blacks were marooned in the New World - already the indigenous peopleu were rendered invisible - and they assumed their exploited mythical places, supporting society by working on the railroads and furthering the export of cotton and sugar, with a high level of financial viability. Yet, what did the blacks reap? A life that relied on the whims of "massa"? Not entirely. They found support in religion and family, sang and drummed "hidden messages" through their rhythmic cries for help. They trusted in abolitionists, and mustered energy and courage to overcome bondage. Post slavery realised a birth of positive black imagery and a different kind of positioning which brought with it a greater consciousness, as witnessed in 1960's America.

Unfortunately, that "American Dream" has not transferred in the States or in fact anywhere in the Western world. There still lurks an unnatural stigma. One would not contemplate a show called Committed to the Image: Contemporary White Photographers, yet in February 2001, the Brooklyn Museum staged an exhibit entitled Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers which the public flocked to in hordes. Mainstream mandates confirm that the identity of black artists' is black first and foremost - artists, second. It is clear that tokenism remains untarnished and the "we've done our black bit for the year" scheme remains a vehement vehicle.

Yet, the black community, including black artists, continue to forge heroic efforts which reclaim "our space" and by doing so - dispel the overwhelming myths, which stem from implicit stereotypes concerning conventional black visual representation. Autograph a London-based organisation, promotes non-white artists, many of whom are tackling issues around identity. Artists such as Sunil Gupta, Isaac Julian, Joy Gregory, Yinka Shonibare and Eileen Perrier produce exemplary work, yet the mainstream art world has not fully recognised their contributions. Black visual artists continue to be devalued. Many blacks have chosen "natural" hairstyles and embrace our physiognomy. Still others like Michael Jackson have totally transformed their identity. It is clear that we are "allowed" to seize personal choices with respect to our individual personae. A myriad of blacks have gained international political and financial success; Erykah Badu, Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey, and Mary J Blige are just a few examples of black icons that have "created" their own look, and reaped ascendancy. Even though each has put forth positive messages, on a global scale, our representation, along with other ethnic cultures, continue to be limited and informed by an overwhelming white patriarchal gaze. One only needs to look at the policies of La Terrace Country Club^v, for example, to see that black people remain a "problem".

Due to the shifting nature of the races, through interracial bonds, the internet and worldwide travel, universal values create dialogues informed by the blending of cultures. Yet our differences have not transcended to an arena where we are seen as whole beings, untied from history. The diverse social and political climate has transformed, but the puppets of color continue to be manipulated by the hands of white men and in this sense, the myth relies on and suffers from a one sided scope. We survive, but remain on the peripheral of exclusion.






^aThe New Negro was a movement in 1920's America. Coined by Alain Loche, a Howard University professor, it was synonymous with the Harlem Renaissance. The political climate of post-war and the industrial revolution fuelled a need for a placebo, which used art as a vehicle for positive African American identity.

^bThe Jefferson's was an American sitcom during the 70's and 80's. The theme was based around a black family that had finally achieved financial success. George Jefferson, played by Sherman Hemsley, was the head of the family, whose story was a "rags to riches" account. He owned a chained of dry cleaners and this enabled he and his family to move uptown. The team of Don Nicholl, Michael Ross and Bernie West on CBS television conceived the Jefferson's. More information, including soundtrack, can be found at http://valdefierro.com/jeff.html.

^cIn 1924, Geraldo Macado became Cuba's' first dictator. For almost 10 years he subjugated Cuban people, until a cohort of leftists (including Communists) overthrew his government.

^dJames Van Der Zee, one of the most well known black photographers of the time. His upwardly mobile, almost verging on, romantic style chronicled the African American community in Harlem.

^eThe idea of the Other reafirms white superiority, whose in the majority and power. See Stuart Hall's Spectacle of the Other.

^FOur Charlottesville Roots 2000 was compiled by Jean Henderson. It is a historical account starting in the mid 1700's in Charlottesville, Virginia. It also contains offerings from many of the older generation, some of which still live in Charlottesville, and various family trees, spanning over 200 years.

^gGood hair, a common African American term, refers to hair which is soft and loosely curled - as opposed to kinky hair. Good hair is a hybrid product from the mixture of white blood. In the black community, it has been the cause of much jealousy because of favouritism on various levels.

^hInitially the divide was with respect to chores, but once slavery was abolished light-skinned people were seen to be more acceptable. They could also "pass". Passing is an expression for changing identities. In this case, light-skinned blacks, "passed" for whites. In order to assimilate, dark-skinned blacks used skin lightners, such as "Black No More", which contains a harmful chemical called hydroquinone, and hair straighteners. This phenomenon is very alive today.

ⁱSchool Daze (1988) was produced and directed by Spike Lee. School Daze was his second feature film, starring Laurence Fishburne. The satirical theme was based on the division between light and dark-skinned black students at a fictional Southern American college. They clashed over hairstyles and politics.

^jOne example, is the feature film Gone With the Wind (1939) which starred Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel. The story took place on the plantations of Atlanta, Georgia during the Civil War. Hattie McDaniels was awarded an Academy Award for Best supporting actress, for her role as the "house nigger". She was the first African American to receive such an honour.

^kMany artists during the 1930's, were employed by the American government under the guise of the Works Progress Administration Federal Arts Project. Most of the black artists were referred to as "primitive" or "folk" artists because they were not formally trained. It was a romantic decision in capturing authentic American art.

^LJim Crow laws (1880's) originated in the American south. It legalised segregation in public places, such as train stations, restaurants and nightclubs, and of course blacks were given inferior service. Epoch entertainers like Billie Holiday were "allowed" to perform, so long as they used the back entrance and the black toilets. The norm was a fragmented, schizophrenic reality with flashbacks of the old minstrel shows.

^mHottentot Venus was an African woman who lead a tragic life, as a spectacle. She supposedly represented the African female because of her physique - large behind and breasts. Her real name was Saartje Baartman and in 1810 she was taken from Cape Colony, put in a cage and exhibited in London and Paris. Baartman continued to be on display in Paris, until earlier this year (2002), when her formaldehyde body was returned the Motherland.

ⁿIn 1897, The Atlantic Monthly published an essay by DuBois titled, Strivings of the Negro People. WEB DuBois discussed the fragmented existence, which Negroes found themselves, immersed by. He states (with reference to the American world) "…only lets him see himself through the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by a tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity…".

^oThe Star of David, also known as the Mogen David, became an anti-semantic symbol in Nazi Germany. It has now been reapropriated and stands for a symbol of pride on the Israeli flag.

^pFetish a term which Freud associated with the "subsitute" of the penis.

^qDuring the first half of 20th century America, countless black men were lynched because of "looking" at white women, or speaking to them. In 1955, Emmitt Till, a teenager, was lynched in Mississippi because of these acts. There are varying accounts about exactly what he did, I remember, as a child hearing that he met his premature death because he looked at a white woman. Till's white murderers' were acquitted by an all-white jury. He became known as the Sacrificial Lamb of the Civil Rights movement, since news of his needless death terrified the nation and rebooted the NAACP into action. In addition, many sects of the Muslim religion prescribe that women can not be "seen".

^rNAACP was formed in 1908, as a direct response to 2 lynchings in Springfield, Ill. Their aim was to end segregation and discrimination, using non-violent means. Today, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) has a membership of over a half million supporters and it is remains the most influential civil rights groups in the USA.

^sKKK was formed in 1866 and was known for nighttime attacks on blacks in America. They are a secret society who share Hitler's sentiments and wore robes and pillowcases to disguise themselves while they lynched, and often burned crosses on lawns, their innocent victims. Today they continue to recruit and due to the conservative political climate in the States, the KKK is experiencing an upsurge in interest.

^t Michael Jackson is a talented artist who the media have decided to vilify because he has chosen to change the way he looks. His image has become a mixture of boy/girl, black/white. Through plastic surgery he has metamorphosised himself, that is his choice. For years white artists have had the privilege to access what they perceive as the "perfect" look but the media deems Michael as "Wacko Jacko". They have tried to dehumanise him by deeming that he was a child molester yet the public does not seemed convinced. He has been singled out because he is different - he is black.

^uNative Americans, the "original" Americans, were deemed invisible in 1492, when Christopher Columbus claimed he "discovered" America. Their obliging nature gave the colonisers instant access to their knowledge of the land and crops. Yet, once they shared, the Native Americans found their numbers shrinking due to the horrendous genocide at the hands of the English colonisers. America, today, continues to celebrate "Thanksgiving" which is a holiday based on the"fruits" that were "stolen" from the Native Americans. For further reading see bell hooks, Christopher Columbus: Gone but not forgotten, in: Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations, Routledge, New York 1994.

^vOn 23 August 2002,The Star-Ledger (a daily New Jersey newspaper), reporter Rob Williams said the following, "Three New Jersey families are legally challenging a Nutley swim club's alleged policies that claim have discriminated against blacks and dark-skinned people for more than four decades."




1 hooks, bell, Black Looks: race and representation,South End Press, Boston, MA, 1992 p.170

2 Powell, Richard J.,Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 1997 p.78

3 Boime, Albert, The Art of Exclusion, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London, 1990 p. 5

4 Powell, op cit , 1997 , p.8

5 McElroy, Guy, Powell, Richard and Patton, Sharon, African American Artists 1880-1987, University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 1989, p. 35

6 aArogundade, Ben, black beauty: a history and celebration, Pavillion Books Ltd., 2000, p. 36

7 Gates, Jr.,Henry L.,and Dalton, Karen C.C., Josephine Baker and La Revue Ne`gre: Paul Collin's Lithographs of Le Tumulte Noir in Paris, 1927, Harry N Abrams, Inc., NYC, NY, 1998, p.9

8 Arogundade, Ben, op cit, 2000, p. 22

9 Mercer, Kobena, Welcome to the Jungle, Routledge, NYC/London, 1994, p.143

10 Anzaldua, Gloria, Borderlands/La Frontera:The Metiza, as quoted in Ward, Gayle, Crossing the Line, Duke University Press, Durham/London, 2000, p.1

11 Adam, Peter, Art of the Third Reich, Thames and Hudson, Ltd., London, 1992, p.127

12 Arogundade, Ben, op cit, 2000, p.23

13 Berger, John, Ways of Seeing, British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books Ltd., London, 1972

14 Walker, Alice, Meridian, Powell, op cit , 1997 ,p.151

15 King, Martin, L., The Great March on Washington, (lp title), catalog Gordy no. 908, A division of Motown Record Corp., Washington, DC,1963

16 Stevens, Chris, telephone interview, 15 September, London, 2002