Martinsville Quilt Causes Controversy (Councilwoman calls it racist)

[cali]

A Martinsville school project is creating a lot of controversy. Students at the Piedmont Governor's School presented a class project to city council on Tuesday. At that meeting, one member of council was offended by a student's work.
Each of the high school juniors in the class made a square of the quilt to represent a research project in hopes it would be displayed in the municipal building.

One of the squares represented their visit to a hydroelectric plant. As it was explained in a statement to ABC 13 and at the council meeting, the dark figure on the left was intended to represent the darkness about the value of the facility before their visit. Then, the gold figure on the other side was their knowledge afterward. When the quilt was presented to city council, Councilwoman Sharon Hodge took that square a different way.

"Excuse me. Um, why is the small black person the negative image?" said Hodge.

Hodge continued to explain she was offended about the black image being the before image and the gold person being the after image.

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http://www.wset.com/story/22091089/martinsville-quilt-causes-controversy

[Brickbat]

1. She handled it poorly and, in my opinion, overreacted.

[cali]

2. I'll go beyond that. I think her reaction was ridiculous

[Brickbat]

4. I felt sorry for the kid who made that square!

I love the metaphor, and I think whoever made it did a really nice job.

[CBGLuthier]

3. Reminds me of a scene in Malcolm X

That showed how time and time again, blackness is equated to evil and inferiority while white is the color of good and superiority.

But I imagine most white people can not see that.

[cali]

5. did you look at the square?

it's quite a stretch to see race in it at all.

[Matariki]

17. It's the repeated f'd up metaphor that black=bad/evil while white=good/pure

Try to imagine how dark skinned children develop their sense of identity and self worth in a culture that constantly pushes that message.

I don't think that Councilwoman overreacted at all. It's just that most people who aren't affected directly by something like that tend to not see it.

[cali]

18. I'm fully coginzant of the Clark experiment and even more recent

studies. However, this is fucking ridiculous. The figures on the quilt in no way look representative of any race and the Councilwoman certainly did overreact. Not to mention that the other figure wasn't white. Furthermore, fortunately, the meme that black equals bad and white equals good is far less prevalent in our culture today than it has been in the past. Had the figure in the quilt been more clearly a black person, the councilwoman would have had a point.

[Taverner]

19. Ahhhh hypocrites

You guys are FUNNY

[LanternWaste]

20. Along with dark=night and light=day.

"It's the repeated f'd up metaphor that black=bad/evil while white=good/pure..."

Along with dark=night and light=day.

[HiPointDem]

22. electricity = light, no electricity = darkness. a person in the dark can be any color, but all we

see is the dark.

[Matariki]

23. That's a fair interpretation, possibly, given the hydroelectric theme of the quilt

However, if you watch the video, the explanation given is that the figure represents "the darkness in the value of the facility before their visit". Not sure what that actually means.

To me anyway, it's understandable how someone who has lived with the effects of a negative cultural cliche (Councilwoman Sharon Hodge is African American) would be sensitive to the image. I don't think mocking her feelings is appropriate. A dialog would be more appropriate. One where people listen to each other and not just make jokes about 'political correctness' gone awry.

[HiPointDem]

24. i didn't mock her. i understand how she could be sensitive. i also think sometimes people are

over-sensitive.

it's understandable, but still self-defeating. pick your battles, and don't fight children.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

25. Ms. Hodge could also take into account that a young child who created it is involved

Instead, she saw fit to jump all over that child's creation as some nefarious racist slight.

[Generic Other]

26. I think we need to look at intent

I read it as being in the dark without electricity, crossing the hydro electric dam and suddenly glowing with gold. The student didn't paint a white person. That was Mr. Lightbulb. That is how I read it. Yet, I can see how Hodges might have viewed it negatively. Still, that clearly seems not to have been the intent. Young artists are still learning the power of visual communication. They sometimes mess up. She might have spoken to the kid afterwards, expressed her criticism of the work and offered him advice on possibly changing it slightly. A teachable moment.

edit: typo

[Matariki]

16. +1

[treestar]

6. I see what she means

The person is obviously black, then gets a lot of knowledge and is suddenly golden. Some other metaphor needed; if not intended it was insensitive.

[Bake]

14. Umm, golden. Not white. Golden.

Seeing racism there is seeing what one WANTS to see. I'm WHITE but I'm not golden.

Bake

[treestar]

15. I'm beige

Kind of halfway - still the first person is black and then they change - if that golden person isn't white, it's at least a change. Maybe it's an Asian person or a Boehner person.

[RZM]

7. Something similar happened at my HS in the 80s

It was a mural showing a timeline of US history. Somebody objected to MLK being depicted alongside klansmen.

IIRC, the image was removed. I remember teachers were still mad over it years later.

[Captain Stern]

8. A silly reaction over nothing, in my opinion.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

I doubt any of the shorter people that saw the quilt were offended by the "smaller" figure. But I'm guessing all of the tall people that were made out of gold felt pretty good about the second figure.

[Brickbat]

9. Heh.

I LOLd.

[Quantess]

10. ONE quilt square in the quilt.

That's all she can see? If it were the entire design, okay. But it's just one detail of many.

[Dr. Strange]

11. The kid was probably raised by a Gold Supremest.

[Pelican]

12. Some of these folks...

[markiv]

27. Jill Masterson proved that there are as many gold victims, as supremacists nt

[Pelican]

28. Ooooook....

[Eleanors38]

13. Oh, that's ripe!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

21. Not only that, the black person is naked!

Nude, naked, nude!

[SEMOVoter]

29. What About the Alien Invasion?

[link:|

http://nationalreport.net/white-gifted-students-ignite-racial-tensions-with-quilt-project/