Studio Be: Fighting the fear of Black excellence

Studio Be (Illustration by: Emma Fick)

The fear of black excellence. It’s truly a thing in America that always has been. Now the question is why and how. To answer this question, we need to look back at history.  

During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans moved from the south all around the United States between the years of 1916 to 1970.  Others stayed in the south during reconstruction. As years passed by, African Americans began to be incorporated into society. They started working more, people began to be elected into congress, and racism has decreased from many states and cities. This really started to show many people how things are getting better and people want to show it to others that can’t see it.

African Americans use their talents to express their feelings or beliefs on what was happening in the past, which they feel never can be forgotten.  But white supremacists don’t want history to be forgotten. They want to remind citizens of the power they supposedly once held. For example, In New Orleans, there is a small museum that is located in the Ninth ward called Studio BE (2941 Royal Street). The artist, Brandan B-Mike Odums, created dozens of images, including the image of  a white policeman pointing a gun towards a young black girl with natural hair. In the gun, is a red rose. On the gun, there are small words, like “fear” etched onto it. You would think that this policeman is pointing the gun to the girl because he is afraid of her, and the rose is showing how strong unfrightened she was. Odums says that he does his art  in this way to educate everyday life. He states that all his art answers the question “What does it mean to be Human?”

Although that is his question, I have questions of my own. I want to know if our people see what is going on and see what people are trying express through their talents. Do people know that this is important? Do they see their own black excellence? Are they courageous enough to show their black excellence to the world?

Black excellence needs to excel more and more every year. White supremacist do not want us to be back on to of them because they are ashamed of how their ancestors treated our ancestors. It is 2018, and black Americans still have to face the trauma that the people before had to face. The only difference is that they had it worse.

We have to stand up with our heads high and eyes open. We have to dig for the rights that we deserve that our great-grandparents fought heavy for. We have to finish what they started by going to school and getting an education. And we need to express our struggles, our beauty, and our beliefs as Odums does — in a way that makes people stand up, take notice, and feel.