Our Kind of People: The inspiration for Passing
Michele Elizabeth Lee || [ CURATORIAL STATEMENT ] use compass to view walls
Curatorial statement
Do you feel the same when you see a Black man in a suit and tie as you do when you see a White man in a suit and tie? How do you perceive an Asian woman in a skin tight mini dress with high heels versus a black woman dressed similar? Does a white man wearing a blue bandana and t-shirt evoke the same messages for you as when you see a Mexican man wearing the same? Do people discriminate based upon what a person is wearing? Bayete Ross Smith's "Our Kind of People" series is a project about young Black people in corporate America that challenges perceptions of identity based on skin tone and what a person is wearing. Bayete says, "A lot of us grew up within the hip hop culture, so we had hip hop attire, sport attire and we also had our formal attire and our business attire." He found it interesting how differently folks are perceived based on their clothing in combination with their ethnicity and their skin tone. So, he decided to photograph other people and himself in clothing that reflected their professional, formal and casual personalities. Documenting all the subjects on a white background vaguely references identification posters. As I viewed the images in "Our Kind of People" and "Passing", there was little text to guide me, so, I caught myself conjuring up stereotypes based on clothing, race, and country of origin. Few of us are exempt from the subliminal messages the media constructs about race, class, ethnicity, culture, gender, politics and historical context. However, the next time these divisive notions crop up, we can close our eyes, and know our organs are positioned in the same place, we all have red blood, and our common
ancestor is Lucy in Africa.
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Do you feel the same when you see a Black man in a suit and tie as you do when you see a White man in a suit and tie? How do you perceive an Asian woman in a skin tight mini dress with high heels versus a black woman dressed similar? Does a white man wearing a blue bandana and t-shirt evoke the same messages for you as when you see a Mexican man wearing the same? Do people discriminate based upon what a person is wearing? Bayete Ross Smith's "Our Kind of People" series is a project about young Black people in corporate America that challenges perceptions of identity based on skin tone and what a person is wearing. Bayete says, "A lot of us grew up within the hip hop culture, so we had hip hop attire, sport attire and we also had our formal attire and our business attire." He found it interesting how differently folks are perceived based on their clothing in combination with their ethnicity and their skin tone. So, he decided to photograph other people and himself in clothing that reflected their professional, formal and casual personalities. Documenting all the subjects on a white background vaguely references identification posters. As I viewed the images in "Our Kind of People" and "Passing", there was little text to guide me, so, I caught myself conjuring up stereotypes based on clothing, race, and country of origin. Few of us are exempt from the subliminal messages the media constructs about race, class, ethnicity, culture, gender, politics and historical context. However, the next time these divisive notions crop up, we can close our eyes, and know our organs are positioned in the same place, we all have red blood, and our common
ancestor is Lucy in Africa.
[ HIDE ]