Opposing viewpoints: Ignorance demands confrontation

Does ignoring ignorance make it go away?

Are we really so far beyond racism as a nation that talking about racism in pop culture rehashes stereotypes more than it dismantles them?

I don’t think so.

To pretend racism and other violence will disappear if we stop bringing them up bespeaks privilege and ignorance.

Dolce & Gabbana is making something of a splash with the preview of its spring 2013 fashion collection.

The lineup, which featured caricatures of black women on earrings and dresses, has
been rightly accused of troublingly racist overtones.

The white, idealized models make the appropriation of racist stereotypes even more overt.

There has been debate as to  whether the caricatured imagery is reminiscent of American South “mammy” tropes. Some have likened it to historical Italian
portrayals of Moors, Muslim populations in northern African and the Mediterranean.

This kind of nitpicking misses the point.

I don’t care which racist cultural-historical moment inspired this collection, both are dependent on white supremacist colonialism.

The imagery recalls white supremacist depictions of colonized populations, and the historical violence committed is reproduced by high fashion in the name of ... what?

The runway becomes a site of racial violence when decapitated black heads with big red lips dangle from the ears of white models.

There’s a difference between being hypersensitive to racialized iconography and confronting representations of colonialist narratives.

Fashion, like all cultural institutions, does not operate outside of politics. It interacts with dominant culture and represents ignorances and violences in that culture.

If we’re ready and willing to turn a supposedly “colorblind” eye to instances of racism like the Dolce & Gabbana collection, we need to reexamine where that willingness is coming from.

Do we not care because we don’t confront racism from day to day?

Do we think racism in pop culture has no effect on dominant (mis)conceptions of race?

Do we think we’re above “real” racism when we make art with racist overtones?

If you really care about fashion, why would you also turn around and pretend like it doesn’t matter to real life?

Ignorance should be met with opposition, not deference.


­— ptbeane@indiana.edu