On Saturday, October 17th, five black students – including myself – carried out a silent demonstration headed by NYU student Myles Golden as part of his performance piece entitled “Is This How You See Us?” The performance commenced at the NYU Tisch School of Arts as we emerged in a single line onto New York City sidewalks -- dressed in all white, our faces covered in black paint, and signs in our hands. The signs read the names of black men and women of the past and present who have suffered assault and torture at the hands of the police. Four names were used to represent this ever-growing collective of black lives: Malcolm, Rodney, Sandra, and Rekia. The last of the signs simply read the all-encompassing question of the piece, Is this how you see us?
Our silent protest then trailed through some of the most populated public areas in New York City – Union Square, Madison Square, and Herald Square – to reach our final destination: Times Square. Once there, we sat in silence in front of the TKTS booth for an hour. Within minutes, people swarmed around us to take pictures and inquire about the message behind it. Most onlookers shouted encouraging statements, calling the work beautiful, voicing their support, and expressing thanks for what we were doing. Others took our statement as a joke, even mocking our performance and coming in close to take selfies without attempting to comprehend the deeper message. All of us participants later vented about how dehumanizing it felt to have to witness and go through those kinds of interactions. A number of viewers seemed to miss the point altogether, commenting that they just didn’t understand, which displayed a very troubling lack of knowledge about the Civil Rights movement, American history, and present-day circumstances.
Myles Golden, a second-year photography student at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, developed the piece from active research on the history of blackface and a deep concern for the state of the black community today. The piece poses a question to the rest of America about the creation of a black identity that black people are subjected to yet had no hand in creating. At first, I had my reservations about donning the historically harmful and stereotypical blackface, but it seemed to me that it wasn’t a matter of reclaiming the image, but rather bring to the surface a symbol as a reminder that it still persists today.
This piece could not have come at a better time. It’s almost Halloween – a time that brings out the creative side in us with cute, goofy costumes, but also the offensive, ignorant side that deems hurtful and racist costumes, like blackface, acceptable. Blackface has forced us to take a secondary role in shaping our own identities and that, however indirectly, has had a hand in creating an environment where black people fear for their lives due to racism and prejudice. That message was encapsulated in our faces, in our uniformity, in our signs, and in our silence.
I asked Myles about how he expected the piece to go, to which he responded:
While we were walking, I first expected to receive a lot of backlash from the black community because when you first look at the group you immediately notice the blackface. So naturally I was nervous that people were going to see past the signs and only see the blackface, not attempting to try to understand the piece in its entirety.
I knew the way the performance was orchestrated it would grab people’s attention right off the bat, causing an uncomfortableness and overwhelming force towards the audience, but I hoped it would make people ponder about the piece in itself. I also anticipated people outside the black race to heckle us more and for members of the black community who understood the cause to step in and speak on our behalf.
Myles also expressed how gratified he was by the audience's response:
Overall I feel the piece did what it was supposed to do: it was created to awaken people to what has been occurring to the black race as a whole culturally. Each name written, exhibited black lives who did not matter to someone, so much to a point that they were stripped from this world because of the color of their skin
With this performance it put into question the black identity: how we as people of all races see black people of their true identity compared to the stereotypical idea that is readily available today.
Ultimately, Myles’ creative statement and press release highlights his objective and the desired effect of this performance piece. It's a look into life in Black America that we can no longer refuse to see:
We, members of the black community today, march to confront the racial degradation of the black face identity. Know today, that when you see us, marching, existing, that:
This is what it feels like…. When your body is alone
because your soul didn't come home
and the world begins to leave you and your skin just erodes.
This is silence! That your skin is forced to own because
your melanin was too bold!
This, is what it feels like.
This… is what it feels like
to be black in America.
You can take a fuller look at the performance piece on the Twitter and Instagram handles, @howyouseeus.
Image Credit: Myles Golden
