Book Review
Why Don’t We Talk About Race in Fairy Tales?
Characters in fairy tales “are white not by chance, but by design,” Kimberly J. Lau writes in a new book.
Race
Art
Samuel Delany, Grand Master of Afrofuturism
Surveying decades of his writing and criticism, Occasional Views contributes to a greater understanding of Delany’s unimpeachable stature.
Art
The Uneasy History of Swimming and Race, as Relayed Through Art
Swimming has been racialized for 3,000 years, but for most of that time it was Africans who were good swimmers, and Europeans who tried to keep up.
Art
Mira Dayal Maps a Gallery Floor
The graphite floor map can be understood as a post-apocalyptic landscape, a commentary on artistic labor, or a parable about COVID-era confinement.
Books
Using Language to Investigate Whiteness
In Wite Out Linda Norton seeks the words to envision relationships not shaped by hundreds of years of white supremacy.
Art
Why It's Right That the Theodore Roosevelt Statue Comes Down
Maybe we can finally really look at Theodore Roosevelt statue: a monument that is all about hierarchy, created to express what American Museum of Natural History exhibits at the time called the “distinct races of mankind."
Art
Artists Who Resist the Gaze of Collectors
Images by Kameelah Janan Rasheed and an exhibition curated by Sol Camacho avoided trendy visuals or themes at EXPO Chicago.
In Brief
Patrons Wore Blackface and Colonial-Era Costumes to Party at AfricaMuseum
Images emerging on social media showed partygoers dressed in pith helmets and blackface at the museum. The colonial-era museum apologized for the event, admitting a "lapse in judgment."
Film
A Tender Friendship Between Black Men Escapes the Limits of Toxic Masculinity
The Last Black Man in San Francisco is refreshingly profound in its exploration of the physical and emotional closeness of its lead characters.
Art
The Lasting Influence of the Waxen Venus on Studies of Anatomy
Modern constructions of beauty and biological race were heavily influenced by the study, replication, and measurement of classical sculpture in eighteenth century Europe.
Art
Why We Need to Start Seeing the Classical World in Color
The equation of white marble with beauty is not an inherent truth of the universe; it's a dangerous construct that continues to influence white supremacist ideas today.
Art
Who's Afraid of White Fragility? Edward Albee
The late playwright's estate recently rescinded rights to his most famous play from a director who wanted to cast a black actor in his production.