[TRIGGER WARNING for anti-black racism, simulation of cannibalism/genital cutting]
TRIGGER WARNING for anti-black racism, simulation of cannibalism/genital cutting
WOW, ok. so this is an addition to the photo/article I posted earlier about this cake. Apparently it is more than just edible, it is an art piece that cries out/screams as it is being cut.
The artist is a mixed black woman, Makode Linde, and makes lots of art about race. Putting this cake into context, makes it much more acceptable as a radical piece designed to cause discomfort to the Whites who will cut & consume it. The problem then is not the cake, which simply exists as a tool through which to provoke and showcase lingering racist and colonialist attitudes and practices, but rather those who are comfortable partaking in it.
And I think Linde is a genius now.
More context. I don’t know if I can think that critically about this yet.
the only way this would approach acceptable for me is if the artist is a Khoikhoi/KhoeKhoe woman herself—if not that shit is still mad suspect to me. gore art based on the violent dismemberment of a Khoikhoi woman in order to teach white folks a lesson is not automatically a pass to me.
i already find it extremely suspect the way that many non-South African/non-Khoikhoi/khoekhoe-descended Black women exploit the narrative of Baartman’s life to do their political work as a pan-African example of the barbarism of the European Colonial project. Don’t get me wrong the evils of the European colonial project does need to constantly be (re)exposed however it’s telling and problematic how many folks want to use Baartman’s body *still* and being of the African-diaspora doesn’t automatically make your participation in that system acceptable.
And the artist is actually a man. To make it even more suspect.
context (for the perplexed) (also, it’s pretty horrifying)
(via blackraincloud)
