Weathering Hypothesis, 2020, 30 1/2” x 69,” Kanekalon

Based on the proposal of American public health research professor, Arline Geronimus that African American women experience health deterioration in early childhood due to socioeconomic disadvantages.

I recently came across a photo I sent to myself while in St. Petersburg, it was a “sambo like character” dressed in a traditional Russian hat, looking confused stupid and out of place. It was advertising “horseradish flavored mayo.” When I was in Buenos Aires I passed a bakery, every, single day on the way to the studio. In the window were large “sambo like” pastries with grotesque, oversized pale pink lips against a dark chocolate backround and scared, beady, wide eyes. I didn’t see any black people the entire time I was in Russia or Argentina. The only evidence of black people were these food items.

The real challenge in being a minority in my own country or around the world are microagressions. Racism that you are forced to swallow and get over on a daily basis, a constant assualt and a reminder that you are less, will always be less. Shouldn’t puff your chest out, look up or ever complain. To just remain grateful for small indignities, small insidious daily poison boring into your being. To hopefully grow smaller and rot from the inside out.

Images by Tina K Lieberman