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Diversity: Do You Treat All People Equally?
Diversity • Acrylic/MM on Canvas • 24" X 24" X 1.5"
And is that even a possible goal in today's climate?
As a female, I know that I am NOT treated equally in many different areas of my life. Let me count the ways:
1. When I worked for a corporation I was not looked at for advancement as the many men I had worked with even though I did most of the research for their projects.
2. As a female artist, it is more difficult for me to get into galleries and museums with my work. Here are the statistics to back this up that were reported in a Forbes article from various sources:
* A recent data survey of the permanent collections of 18 prominent art museums in the U.S. found that out of over 10,000 artists, 87% are male, and 85% are white. (Public Library of Science)
* Only 13.7% of living artists represented by galleries in Europe and North America are women. (artnet News) This is SHAMEFUL!
3. During meetings, and I have attended many, unless women become very vocal, I notice they are overlooked for the male views.
4. And look at our federal government! They had a Women's Health Conference meeting and the only legislators around the table were men. OMG we really need to pick our legislators better. And younger with more modern views.
I could go on and on but it depresses me so much to think backwards.
What about racial biases?
I grew up in a racist environment.
My father was born in the South even though he had settled in NYS once he was married to my mother. And he was a racist. I was not and had black friends in school. One of the last conversations I had with him before he passed away was about race. And it is something I will never forget!
And some of the siblings in my family are racist. How does that happen? And the bickering to change my views are so tiring. I feel sorry for people who give so much weight to the color of someone's skin. It is just a color, not a determination of who they are.
As an artist, I look at color as a positive thing, something that gives me the opportunity to have a unique look and variety in my paintings.
I saw a big change in the last several years in acceptance of men and women of color, some good but a lot of bad too.
I thought things were getting better when I noticed more people of color on news shows giving commentary & our choice of a black president voted into office for 2 terms. Some things had changed but in the last several years race bias is rampant again.
The tone comes from the top to the bottom and the tone from the top has many racist overtones. So sad that people are condemned for the color of their skin. I just can't and won't tolerate it in my close environment anymore.
We are all the same and the color of our skin is just that, color and nothing more. When you think about it, how silly it is to be cruel to people because of the color of their skin. It makes no sense to me.
I think it is possible for women's equality to become stronger but I don't know if I will ever see gender or color bias go away completely.
I have fought for equality all my life as a female in all of my pursuits. It is tiresome and limits the potential of going as far as you can with your talents, whatever they may be.
Have you ever heard of the "Other" syndrome. I learned about it in my philosophy classes in college that it is human nature for people to want to have someone to look down upon. They do this to make themselves feel more powerful, better. Change takes a long time to propagate. I just heard a quote by Ivan Illich that I put below that makes so much sense to all of this nonsense for me...
"Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change a society, rather you must tell a more powerful tale, one so persausive that it sweeps away the old myths & becomes the preferred story." ~Ivan Illich
As a society, this could take forever and as an individual, that is a tall task for one person.
But, just maybe, if each person could come up with a more powerful tale for the equality and untrue beliefs that he/she carries around with them about gender and race, what a wonderful world it would be. Just take one powerful belief that you carry around that is weighing another person down. Then try to change that by coming up with a different story to create harmony in the world. I am going to try it.
My new belief for other female artists:
Female artists are just as good, and sometimes better, than male artists and can achieve whatever success they strive for. And I am going to share this belief with every person in the art field who persists and continues to ignore female artists who have some great work that is being neglected.
My new belief for racial bias:
Color is just that, a color. It does not determine who that person is as a human being.
Can you come up with a new, persausive belief that will create less weight for another person and repeat it over and over? Please share it below in the comments. And if you can't talk about this in a positive way, don't leave any comments.
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