ARED 3070: Privilege and Culture Jamming

For me the Spillane (2015) article provided a very important realization about race, privilege, and multicultural education that is the fact, "my whiteness shapes my attitudes and assumptions about race" (p. 58). Coming to terms with this was one thing, figuring out how to approach it as a future teacher was a whole other ball game.

As I have mentioned in my other blog posts when I came to college I was very much a subscriber to colorblindness or the belief that by ignoring race we are protecting ourselves from misstep and others from potential offense. I saw how damaging this mind set is because it doesn't recognize the differences we all bring to the table, I also now see how that continues to perpetuate privilege. By avoiding race we avoid the idea that some people are given advantages by society that others are not. By ignoring privilege we only enhance it.

I would say the next phase of my relationship with these ideas was fear. I then understood that there were clear inequalities in all aspects of our society especially in our public schooling system. That was scary to me because I am headed directly into the US school system when I graduate. So I think I had a subconscious feeling that the prevalence of racism and privilege would end when this class ends because it wouldn't be all that I am reading, writing, and talking about. I was scared because I couldn't imagine how I, a privileged white woman, could approach these issues and different cultures in my classroom without misrepresenting or teaching something wrong. For anyone who is not going into the field of education, imagine the guilt you would feel if you misinformed hundreds of impressionable minds and belittled the cultures around the world? Worse case scenario these children grow up with that being the only thing they know about the topic and it leads to the continuation of systematic racism. I overcame this stage by telling myself if Spillane (2015) can continuously fail in her attempts at multicultural education but still sees the benefits in trying and can even write an article about it, then it is more important then failing and the injustice done by not trying is worse than failing.

So I will try, I will try my best, and I believe that is best done by being informed, pursuing a constant state of learning. Keeping up with the media, reading educational texts, and sincerely valuing my students experiences.

I have also found by being reading and listening, my interest has been sparked by imaging potential art lessons. Through visual arts we can approach these topics with our students in a way that may not seem like a personal attack while also giving our students the skills to evaluate society and reflect on it themselves, in and outside of the classroom.

Along with issues of privilege and racism, visual culture is another topic I am very excited to write lessons about in my classroom. One idea I have been exploring is having students investigate when appropriation is appropriate? Sturken and Cartwright (2018) discuss this by approaching the idea of the gaze and the other. There are many historical and contemporary examples throughout art history and visual culture which can bring up interesting topics of orientalism or propaganda.

Sturken and Cartwright (2018) provide this Keri Lotion advertisement from 2006 and a poster adapted by the Guerrilla Girls in 2005.

In the fall the Georgia Museum of Art had an exhibit on World War 1 propaganda posters, visiting lecturer David Lubin discussed how the imagery on these posters continues today in visual culture. He discussed the idea that "images are never see in isolation" therefore they are influenced in their creation and viewing by other images (Lubin, 2018).

Appropriation is also a topic that contemporary artists are investigating such as Kehinde Wiley. Along with art appropriation there is constant news of cultural appropriation another topic that relates to the borrowing of images or symbols.

Exploring the issues we discuss in this class is challenging but also rewarding when considering how it can be applied in a multicultural art curriculum.

References

Lubin, D. (2018) O say can you see? Art, propaganda, and the first world war. Georgia Museum of Art.

Spillane, S. (2015). The failure of whiteness in art education: A personal narrative informed by Critical Race Theory. Journal of Social Theory in Art Education. 35, p. 57-68.

Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2018). Practices of looking: An introduction of visual culture. (Third Edition). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.