Feast & Famine

Food Chain, Catherine Chalmers

The feast and famine exhibition explored food in social, political and bodily phenomena as ways of activism. One of the pieces that I believed tied to my final project was, “Food Chain” by Catherine Chalmers. It explored the basic levels of the food chain working, its way to the top making it an endless cycle. Plants like tomatoes would be consumed by insects like the caterpillar which would then be consumed by the grasshopper. The strongest or fit to live consumes the other which in turn is consumed by a frog which would be consumed by a human. We die and decompose and from that new plants grow and the cycle continues. In today’s world it is all about the food chain where the wealthiest prey on the poor and weak, while the poor and weak prey on each other. The poor and weak would be considered the minority. The minority groups of the black and Spanish communities where you would predominantly find them forming gangs, dropping out of school, early pregnancies and very few job opportunities and less or no medical funding. They are held down by what society has formed them to be and conform or accept the chain, whereas the white would take advantage of that and racially profile the entire group by corrupting the judicial system in their favor, law enforcement. The artist portrayed a symbol of capitalist patriarchy that is culturally biased.

A world that racially profiles a young male in a hoodie and considers the human being a threat is the scary world we live in. Parents are now worried for the safety of the children just because they will be judged on the color of their skin. The communities these children grow up in, they are subject to an educational system that expects them to either drop out of school and end up in jail or just fail. They grow up thinking that it’s okay to live like that and fight among each other over territories and who is better than the other. They are trapped in a box, where they cannot dream outside their environment to strive or work hard for what is out there that would have a long term value to them. Right now, they are all about having the latest sneakers, designer clothes and good looking spouses, forgetting that there is more to it than all that. Forgetting that their medical, education and law enforcement system has become racially corrupt.

Rap on Race with Rice by Dominique Duroseau

The next piece was the work, “Rap on Race with Rice” by Dominique Duroseau. This piece was centered on people sitting around a table discussing race while separating the black and white rice from each other. In the background were a series of pictures. In some, the black women wore cuffs while separating the rice. This exhibited the current race situation in our country. Black people are constantly being viewed as criminals, trapped in a system that cannot see them as more. It’s like they are still bound by their chains from the past. It is even harder to succeed as a black woman and expected to work much harder to enjoy what the upper middle class white people enjoy. The fact that rice is rice no matter the color but society wants to separate it making it seem like white is pure and better than the black. The process of separation and discussion allows for open mindedness where we are all the same and it’s all about pride and prejudice.

Rap on Race with Rice

The children, especially the youth need to be well informed and mentored to fight the oppression that has been hovering over all of them. This can be done by being educated by very distinguished, proficient teachers, funding in community outreach and mentoring activities where they can be active and well informed, and teaching on the importance of investing and buying a home as well as having the highest education possible. They need to be pushed out of their comfort zones and be aware how society has branded them with cuffs of entertainment and drugs as a distraction to keep them from doing better.

“If one takes a step back, then it’s clear that social and cultural capital provide valuable insights into the power disparities that emerge from differences in race, class, gender, and cultural and geographic barriers,” John Berger, Seeing Power.  Data by the Economic policy institute indicates that whites are seven times wealthier than the average black households. Housing equity makes up two thirds of wealth with only about one percent blacks owning homes. Wealth is usually passed down, and the whites are privileged to have ancestors pass down wealth from generation to generation whereas the blacks’ ancestors were slaves and didn’t have wealth. Thus causing the food chain and cycle we see over the years which has barely improved. Minority groups still living in areas that were “red zoned” in the 1940s which were viewed as financial risks. William Pope L’s work on the “Trinket” also supports the idea that “The land of the Free” is not as free as we think it is.

 “People need to feel their democracy, not just hear words about it,” Pope L.

The exhibited projects were able to connect to my theme of Racism in the United States and whether the next generation can be taught to be free from it. The artists from the exhibition used pictures and demonstrations of activism through protest and activities that allowed dialogue. Actions speak louder than words and only action can bring about change. The artists took to the streets of their communities to bring awareness and allow ideas and thoughts to be expressed in a free space with no judgement on racial identities