King Kunta

A few weeks ago my Fostering Creativity class went to the Emanuel Art Gallery on campus. Here, I found this piece by artist, Andre Ramos-Woodard. This piece stood out to me unlike any other that we viewed that day.

I had been re-listening to another Kendrick album at the time. This time it was How to Pimp a Butterfly, which is all about the Black experience, and what it’s like to be a Black artist, so maybe it had something to do with that, maybe it had something to do with the fact that listening to that album made me think of my own experience as a Black femme artist. Maybe listening to that album and seeing this piece made me think of two themes that come from them both: Blackness and capitalism.

One of the many evils of capitalism is that it incentivizes media that makes money, over media that is inclusive. I mean, I suppose that is the main evil of capitalism, that money overrides consciousness, but I digress. Disney made fun of and mocked Black people and Black culture for years. They got away with it because at that time in their history, their target consumers were wealthy white people, and Black people were too poor to care.

That’s changed now, but the pain still radiates throughout the Black community like it does a freshly stubbed toe. This piece isn’t just about the irony of Micky Mouse being inked mostly Black, it’s  reclaiming the pain. It’s reclaiming and taking a turn on the history of Disney and they horrible racist media they created. It is saying, “Hey Disney, you made fun of me, but I know now those things you teased me for I ought not be ashamed of.” Because our Blackness is not something we should ever be ashamed of, and among brothers and sisters we are empowered. And though we are empowered by those that look like us, we have to take that empowerment with us, even when we are in the company of those more privileged. 

This piece is Black empowerment, unashamed and unfiltered. This artist reclaims and includes his own voice as a Black individual and enriches his own sense of self and identity, and that I think is the ultimate beauty of this piece. I just had to write about it. It’s risky, not everyone who has seen this piece probably gets it, the mixed media alone might through them off. But I can appreciate it, and allow it to empower me.