Us vs Us

Us vs Us

            Our sense of identity is our most important aspect in life. Without it, we have not individualism, diversity, change or progression in the world. What would the world be like if everyone was the same? Boring! Identity is how we make sense of ourselves and each other. To construct identity, we must do so from lived experiences as individuals yet collectively in groups. The family, the crowd, the community, the audience, whatever it may be -- we are constantly comparing ourselves to others. Because of this, we can see our own selves apart from them but also a part of the human fabric. We find our uniqueness through these lenses. The other persons allow us to see who we are or who we are not.

            Race, gender, and power for example, organizes us into categorical boxes or into different “identities.” These labels are all constructed because none of them are ‘real.’  They’re all constructed to help us differentiate between statuses. Race is of the manmade system used in ways that’s either beneficial for some or non-beneficial for others; it is a paradox. For example, many white Americans genuinely believe they are not racist, yet on the other hand, society says it is harder for a black person to get a job in comparison to a white person. It racially divides us and gives power to some and take it away power from others. 

Dawoud Bey, Smokey, (2001) relates to this argument greatly. In this photograph, a young African American man lounges on a bench with a can of beer. I chose this piece because my identity has taught me that he looks familiar. His presence is recognizable, intimate, and relatable. He looks like a cousin of mine, a family member, or the boy next door. Yet, some may view him as a threating member in the community. He has a typical stereotyped physical appearance. I’ve seen this image in American culture labeled as “the troublemaker.” It is the negative consequences of stereotypes and constructed identity that sizes him up because it perhaps makes life easier for us.

Deborah Roberts, We heard the thunder, no. 5, (2017) expresses a broken girl who has witnessed a horrible act against a black male figure in her life. It appears that even though the child is young and innocent, she mustn’t trust the world she lives in. It speaks of brokenness. Her identity in this image lacks wholeness. There is a mixture of deformity and confusion. The inconsistent patterns and mismatching limbs are attributed to the young girls constructed identity. Her pieces are put together just as the world manufacture labels for its people.

Nan Goldin, Misty and Joey at Hornstrasse, Berlin, (1992)

Gender is a category that is the premise to the formation of a person’s social identity in connection to other individuals. We know who “Joey” is in this image because we have a preconceived notion of what a drag queen looks like. We associate drag queens with flamboyancy, overly audacious, and men dressed up in women’s clothing. In this photograph, you see non-conformity to identity as society believes a man should be masculine and dress in what is considered “appropriate for his gender.”

Howard Cook, Negro Baptism, (1935) Religion cannot exist without a society to which draws believers. It satisfies our need for meaning. It draws the community together and allows us to work with a common purpose in mind. Religion is also complex because I believe it stems from a divine being as well as the human mind, however, how our culture portrays the God image says a lot about what and who we view as powerful and valuable. I was attracted to this image because Cook “translated his observations into an image of great dignity and monumentality resulting from his sensitive depiction of the figures, which expresses his deep reverence for the rituals of the South.”

Melvin Edwards, Mamelodi (from Lynch Fragment Series) (1986) This piece was interesting and focused on ethnic and cultural identity. It goes back to race and the social construction of it. The pieces in the art represents not only literal objects but also an ideology of what we imagine the African American life was like during slavery, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement. There is no coherent, truthfully defined evidence that race actually exist. However, all humanity, no matter their religious background, color, or sex, they share the same genetic DNA. Therefore, race is not biological. To specify, there are no genes that are only common to all black people or only to all white people. Mamelodi is “meant to evoke the power of racism” in a positive way as he expressed “The chain and lock suggest slavery and confinement, but also protection and security.” We have awarded race, ethnicity, gender, and religion as biological elements due to our need to find and keep our own identities.