"Four Colors," 2023, acrylic paint. These are heavily inspired by "Forbidden Colors," by Felix Gonzalez-Torres (read more here). From 1980-1993, the state of Israel banned artwork displaying these four colors together in occupied Palestine.
Here are some of my favorite black artists;
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Arnold Butler
Kerry James Marshall
Kara Walker
Ojo Agi
Brianna Mccarty
Magdalene Odundo
Jordan Casteel
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh
Wangechi Mutu
BLACK LIVES MATTER
Stop closing your eyes, stop scrolling past, stop thinking it’s not your problem. I’m a white person and might be talking especially to white people out there not being enough aware. It’s the time we say stop, and we need to stop standing still, it’s not a “Black People’s problem”, it’s not a problem “out of our community”, it’s humanity and decency and rights to live and BREATHE not in constant fear. We have voices and privilege that somehow makes our voices worthier to whatever else? So we have to use it, to fight RACISM and SYSTEMIC RACISM that’s sitting inside all of us and in our everyday lives. We need to be all on one side, so there won’t be sides anymore.
I’ve been following all the recent news since the George Floyd murder and I’ve found some good stuff to stay informed, understand what’s happening and start do something. I thought about sharing.
Please SIGN all these petitions and help demand JUSTICE for Black People that have been murdered and their names forgotten. All you need is 10 minutes of your time to sign all the petitions on both pages, every petition has a paragraph explaining the history of what happened to that black person and what you’re signing for. We’re also talking about black children murdered, a pregnant black woman beaten causing the loss of her unborn baby.
Keep reading if you want to do more as you should.
If you can DONATE (not to change.org, donations won’t go to associations but to them to “support the cause” but you better donate to help the protestors and/or the victims), TEXT or CALL asking for justice and help bring awareness and justice for Black People.
STAY INFORMED on what’s happening (by @utenas). Other ways to support/be an ally (by @calmholland). Stand with #BlackLivesMatter. Enough to be silent. Make posts, talk to people, raise awareness and learn.
Watch and read these:
- George Floyd NOT resisting the arrest (no death scene)
- The real person that George Floyd was
- GENERATIONS OF PAINS
- Tamika Mallory speech and urgent call for justice
- Killer Mike speech to ATL
- The Tyler Merritt Project: Before You Call The Cops
- Atlanta protest before the police showed up causing violence
- Brooklyn protest before NYPD incited violence
- Beverly Hills peacefully protests before LAPD arrives
- Protest are being PEACEFUL until cops show up
- Cop getting replace because he was crying/showing sympathy for protestors
- Woman named Latonya speaks peacefully in a protest in Austin, Texas (that’s the full protest video, she speaks at minute 27.27 + other videos 1, 2)
- Police being the real violent ones: - verbal/physical aggression towards a peaceful protestor - showing palpable excitement like it’s a fucking game - acting violent towards protestors - shooting rubber bullets against journalists/reporters - pepper-spraying an elected official black woman - attacking with a bicycle a harmless woman, sparkling violence - attacking peaceful protesters who are sitting harmless on the street - LAPD beating a peaceful protester - more videos of violent cops at #BlackLivesMatter protests - actor/activist Kendrick Sampson being beaten for defending a protester - white policeman maced and pepper-sprayed a 10-years-old child
- Police beating Black harmless People (a man and a woman, a child)
- Black autistic man needing to be identified so white cops won’t go after him
- Korey Wise, victim of systemic racism and convicted in 1989, protesting
- Nice things: - Police officers joining protests in New Jersey & Miami - Hispanic/Latino people showing support for Black People - White old woman and black man meeting in a store - Black woman twerking to the police - Atlanta Chief of Police Department (named Erica) actually listening protestors: 1 + 2 (the woman speaking at 1.25 broke me in tears) + 3 - White people barrier in defense of black protestors from police
- #RaiseTheDegree
+ understand and recognize your privilege, hear the call to action to not just be not-racist, but BE ANTI-RACIST:
- Rihanna’s NAACP speech that calls for unity, solidarity and not considering all black people’s problems as their own only: “Imagine what we could do, TOGETHER”
- Billie Eilish callout to white privilege
- Jane Elliot speech on white privilege and conscious silence towards racist attitudes and behaviours
- A Guide to White Privilege by Courtney Ahn
- Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because you’re not personally involved
- cherryemojigirl via TikTok on white privilege
- Comparing whites’ privilege and black people’s lives
- Whites protesting for haircuts // Black People protesting for THEIR LIVES
- You don’t need to be Black to feel outraged
- Ava DuVernay’s call to action
- Major proof of media being white-controlled
- 6 years ago it was still the same, nothing changed
- It’s not only America. It’s a plague affecting the whole world. (example)
- Don’t go for #AllLivesMatter, your life matters, Black people’s lives are not being treated as human lives, they’re being murdered with bare hands or shot for doing something that would cost a 1-day-in-jail max for a white person. That’s to that we need to focus the support and solidarity and protests and asks for justice, because they’re the ones being killed and mistreated, not whites. #BLACKLIVESMATTER
- Sandra Bland whose mugshot was taken when she was already dead
- Layleen Polanco (black transgender woman, 27, found dead in police custody)
- Breonna Taylor (shot 8 times in Louisville in her home, March 13, 2020)
- Tony McDade (black trans man, killed a few days ago in Tallahassee)
- Marsha P. Johnson (black trans woman who fought for LGBTQ)
- Willie Simmons (serving 38 years for a 9$ robbery)
- Malik Williams (man on wheelchair, shot 86 times on Dec. 31, 2019)
- Nia Wilson (murdered by a white supremacist)
- #JusticeForFloyd, #JusticeForAhmaud, #JusticeForBreonna
- George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tamir Rice, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Samuel Dubose, Sandra Bland, Walter Scott, Terrence Crutcher, REGIS KORCHINSKI-PAQUET, Tony McDade, Ira Latrell, Christopher Mitchell and many others who don’t deserve to be forgotten.
It’s not Black People vs. White People. Black People are fighting for their rights to BREATHE and LIVE day after day without the fear they could be the next. Put yourself in their shoes: it’s not whites and blacks, it has to be people AGAINST racism. It’s JUSTICE, it’s EQUALITY, RIGHTS that Black people deserve as they’re humans like all the other people and have nothing less than them.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1960-1988
MARLBORO MAN, Mar. 3, 1981
oilstick and watercolor on paper 23 x 35 in. | 58.5 x 89 cm.
Winter Landscape, 1931, Valerius De Saedeleer
Igor Pavlovich Obrosov, People
Igor Pavlovich Obrosov, Still life with a teapot and lemons
La femme qui pleure avec mouchoir III, Pablo Picasso
Paul Iribe’s satire of German couture 1917
Joan Mitchell, ‘Straw’, oil on canvas, 1976
The Spring Shadow (1971). Oda Mayumi.
Chuck Larivey (American, b. 1941, Buffalo, NY, USA, based Richmond, VA, USA) - Maymont March Reflections, Paintings: Oil on Linen Canvas
Wilhelm Laage, Summer farewell to the heath, 1908
Over the town, 1918, Marc Chagall
Medium: oil,canvas
Volodymyr Orlovsky “Sunset” 1896.
Harald Sohlberg
The Mermaid. 1896, oil on canvas, 51 x 89 cm
1975 ☭ – “Samarkand” by Ekaterina Sergeevna Zernova.