On April 6, 2007, I had the great pleasure of hosting historian Bijan C. Bayne and cultural anthropologist Tomiko Anders with their presentation of “Who am I?” -- about cultural, racial, national and personal identities and identifiers, at my Dr. Kaung’s Salon at Space 7-10, Kefa Café, Silver Spring, MD.
Both Anders and Bayne are working on their own video documentary projects. Anders described her project consisting of interviews of people of “three or more mixed racial identities.” Bayne spoke of his project about people from other countries who were exhibited as “exotics” in America and Europe in the 19th century. He was not “blaming” about this practice, in the days before photography or TV, even while recognizing that the feelings of the “exhibited” have never been recorded, and most probably was extremely painful emotionally and even physically damaging.
Both Bayne and Anders have previously given talks at Space 7-10, Bayne about his project “Show People” and Anders, about her project, tentatively titled “Mergence.”
I see in my mind’s eye the extremely beautiful faces of such highly talented, racially mixed persons as Tiger Woods and Angelina Jolie, as I write this. It’s fashionable these days, but Bayne says, “There are ugly people too.”
Our Kefa - Space 7-10 co-ordinator and director Amy Kincaid, whom I always thought of as “Irish” due to her name, (or is “Kincaid” a Scottish name?) brought up the modern concept of color blindness. How we should all strive to be color blind in our friendships and associations.
{Remember the scene in the movie about Idi Amin, The Last King of Scotland, 2006, when Forest Whitaker (who won an Oscar for this role) playing the “murderous, charming” Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, accuses his personal physician of “being English.” To which the doctor says, “But I’m not English, I’m Scottish!”
“Well, why didn’t you say so?”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455590/ }
My father gave me a black doll when I was a child in England in the early fifties. I distinctly remember running downstairs to fetch it before bedtime, while my parents were in Paris on a short vacation, and a young couple was staying with us, “to look after us.” They were newly married and hugging and kissing each other on the sofa, when, at 5 years old, I rushed in, grabbed my doll from under the Christmas tree, and rushed out again. I know now that “golliwog” which was the name for such dolls in those days, is derogatory. I found this out in the 90s when someone called Indian-born, British writer Salman Rushdie “a wog” at the time when Khomeini put the fatwah on him for his novel The Satanic Verses.
Some of the salon attendees at “Who am I?” shared some of their personal experiences with race issues. What I forgot to share (I was so tired from getting back from the airport a few hours earlier) were some “racial episodes” that others have related to me. A young Burmese women told me that in elementary school in L.A. a classmate spat directly in her face. She had to wipe the spittle off. She said she was so ashamed, she had never even told her parents. I see no reason why a victim should “feel ashamed.” It’s something for a perpetrator to feel ashamed of.
Another acquaintance, an amateur Burmese pop singer whom I am no longer in touch with, said he loves San Francisco and was driving in his car with the top down, when another car with two Indians in it, stopped with a squeal of brakes right next to him at a red light.
He said he cussed them – “Khwe kalar tway,” in Burmese. (“Damned Indians.”)
At which “the Indian” in the next car turned to him and said in perfect Burmese, “Ah Ko Gyi (Elder Brother), please watch your language.”
At the Salon, you’ll see from my pictures that the attendees were rapt, and everyone said to me afterwards, “That was a good one.”
They also talked about their reactions to my “Mostly Burmese Mugs,” that is, “mugshots” or portraits show, then on the walls at the time.
I’d like to refer you to two other artists who share my fascination with the human face, emotions, national or culture of origin, (in my case “Burmese” -- whatever that is) and art and impressionism.
Please see:
1. Rachel Kent: The Many Faces of Cherry Hood,
2. Claire Roberts: The Slow Art of Ah Xian
In Art in Australia http://www.australia.com/article
Both Anders and Bayne are working on their own video documentary projects. Anders described her project consisting of interviews of people of “three or more mixed racial identities.” Bayne spoke of his project about people from other countries who were exhibited as “exotics” in America and Europe in the 19th century. He was not “blaming” about this practice, in the days before photography or TV, even while recognizing that the feelings of the “exhibited” have never been recorded, and most probably was extremely painful emotionally and even physically damaging.
Both Bayne and Anders have previously given talks at Space 7-10, Bayne about his project “Show People” and Anders, about her project, tentatively titled “Mergence.”
I see in my mind’s eye the extremely beautiful faces of such highly talented, racially mixed persons as Tiger Woods and Angelina Jolie, as I write this. It’s fashionable these days, but Bayne says, “There are ugly people too.”
Our Kefa - Space 7-10 co-ordinator and director Amy Kincaid, whom I always thought of as “Irish” due to her name, (or is “Kincaid” a Scottish name?) brought up the modern concept of color blindness. How we should all strive to be color blind in our friendships and associations.
{Remember the scene in the movie about Idi Amin, The Last King of Scotland, 2006, when Forest Whitaker (who won an Oscar for this role) playing the “murderous, charming” Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, accuses his personal physician of “being English.” To which the doctor says, “But I’m not English, I’m Scottish!”
“Well, why didn’t you say so?”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455590/ }
My father gave me a black doll when I was a child in England in the early fifties. I distinctly remember running downstairs to fetch it before bedtime, while my parents were in Paris on a short vacation, and a young couple was staying with us, “to look after us.” They were newly married and hugging and kissing each other on the sofa, when, at 5 years old, I rushed in, grabbed my doll from under the Christmas tree, and rushed out again. I know now that “golliwog” which was the name for such dolls in those days, is derogatory. I found this out in the 90s when someone called Indian-born, British writer Salman Rushdie “a wog” at the time when Khomeini put the fatwah on him for his novel The Satanic Verses.
Some of the salon attendees at “Who am I?” shared some of their personal experiences with race issues. What I forgot to share (I was so tired from getting back from the airport a few hours earlier) were some “racial episodes” that others have related to me. A young Burmese women told me that in elementary school in L.A. a classmate spat directly in her face. She had to wipe the spittle off. She said she was so ashamed, she had never even told her parents. I see no reason why a victim should “feel ashamed.” It’s something for a perpetrator to feel ashamed of.
Another acquaintance, an amateur Burmese pop singer whom I am no longer in touch with, said he loves San Francisco and was driving in his car with the top down, when another car with two Indians in it, stopped with a squeal of brakes right next to him at a red light.
He said he cussed them – “Khwe kalar tway,” in Burmese. (“Damned Indians.”)
At which “the Indian” in the next car turned to him and said in perfect Burmese, “Ah Ko Gyi (Elder Brother), please watch your language.”
At the Salon, you’ll see from my pictures that the attendees were rapt, and everyone said to me afterwards, “That was a good one.”
They also talked about their reactions to my “Mostly Burmese Mugs,” that is, “mugshots” or portraits show, then on the walls at the time.
I’d like to refer you to two other artists who share my fascination with the human face, emotions, national or culture of origin, (in my case “Burmese” -- whatever that is) and art and impressionism.
Please see:
1. Rachel Kent: The Many Faces of Cherry Hood,
2. Claire Roberts: The Slow Art of Ah Xian
In Art in Australia http://www.australia.com/article
