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At art school, I was often told that my work was “too personal.” Whenever I painted Black women, people asked whether I was trying to make a political statement. They did not ask the same question when other students painted White women or their own white bodies. I noticed how differently we were seen. When I spoke with confidence, I was described as intimidating, or rude. When I was quiet, people assumed I had nothing to say. When I wore my natural hair, my classmates touched it without asking or made comments about it. I felt that people already had an idea of who I was or I should be.
This is one-way gendered racism works. It is not only racism, and it is not only sexism. It is the way these forms of racial, gender oppressions overlap, creating stereotypes and both racial and gender expectations for Black women. We are often expected to be strong but not angry, visible but not “too much,” beautiful but only according to standards we did not create ourselves. For a long time, I tried to make my artworks less confrontational. I used softer colours. I avoided painting faces that looked too much like mine. I thought that perhaps people would take me more seriously if I made my work easier to understand. It did not help! Then I painted a portrait of a Black woman looking directly at viewers. She was not smiling to make others comfortable.
She was not explaining herself. She was simply present: confident, complex and fully herself. That painting changed something for me. I realised that my art does not have to make White people comfortable to be meaningful. It made visible what has been ignored, the Black life stories that are distorted for the comfort of White people. And it challenged the images that reduce Black women to stereotypes. It can create new images of Black beauty, strength, vulnerability, joy. Anti-racist artivism begins when creative expression and resistance lead to emancipatory action and public artivism. It becomes a way of saying: I am here, I define myself, and my story cannot be told without me! |
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Published on 30.09.2026 at 10:15 
