Comments on: Black Face, Racial Caricature, and Cake: Raising Awareness about “Female Genital Mutilation”?

By: Collaborating with Anastasia: Female Genital Mutilation: ‘Black Face, Racial Caricature, and Cake | My Fine Art Practice (W101)

Sun, 26 Jan 2014 19:21:06 +0000

[…] http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/04/18/black-face-racial-caricature-and-cake-raising-awaren… […]

By: Winston Blake

Winston Blake — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 09:01:00 +0000

If Oprah gets any fatter, we can start calling her “Orca” again… She served caviar at Michael Jackson’s funeral because it comes on little white cráckers… She interviewed Mike Tyson about why he cries during séx because of the pepper spray… She thought O.J. was innocent because he was just cutting up some white meat for Thanksgiving.

WELL, I voted for Herman Cain… Sodom Hussein Obama is just 1/2 a négro.

The shooter(s) at the Hoboken, New Jersey mall were celebrating Obama’s heroic speech at Mandela’s funeral just like they were back home in Kenya at the mall.

You can’t call a spade a spade anymore in America… just like Duck Dynasty can’t have an opinion on fággots… we’re fúcked as a country… maybe that dumbáss nígger Dennis Rodman can come back from North Korea next time as a case of canned dog food.

By: Hammerstrike

Hammerstrike — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 07:44:00 +0000

Ugh, that is one ugly cake!

“Kitimbwa Sabuni, a spokesperson for the National Afro-Swedish Association, called the cake a “racist caricature of a black woman” and criticized the event,”
BAWWWW RACYSM

By: Hammerstrike

Hammerstrike — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 07:42:00 +0000

It teaches people not be to be spineless mandavoshkas like you!

No what you have is rich parents and sheltered life privileged, which isn´t much a privilege in the workforce, just like most of you other social justice cretins.
Blacks in White countries are privilegied by living there and sure as heck wo´t move back to black african countries, beause they know the deal. Neither would you move to South Africa or Congo.

By: Clarniluan

Clarniluan — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 01:53:00 +0000

I think “guest” meant that those who do the actual genital mutilations/circumcisions are women who have themselves been circumcised, but have bought into the practice as acceptable or necessary. Alas.

In any case, I don’t think the performance piece was well conceived even if the artist is African-Swedish. One thing he isn’t is a woman who has suffered this misguided operation. I found the video repulsive.

By: Artistlili19

Artistlili19 — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 20:01:00 +0000

This video is sick. Its not funny at all and I can’t even believe that those people in the museum found this performance entertaining. Not only is it extremely racist, it it also insensitive to women who have endured female circumcision or any other kind of violence. The crocodile tears this “performer” is shedding is just make a big joke about it.

By: Ms_elroy

Ms_elroy — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 19:17:00 +0000

well, the swedes are not known for their cultural sensitivity…

By: White Teenager

White Teenager — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:08:00 +0000

I can’t even watch all of that video. Barely twenty seconds in and it sickens me. It looks so horribly gruesome– I can’t imagine ANYone laughing and calmly eating cake like that.

By: Dessa Brewington

Dessa Brewington — Sun, 13 May 2012 15:53:00 +0000

My first impression of these images, just scrolling down the page was that the artist intended a commentary on consumerism. That all of these people are eating cake, and laughing about it, without considering (or perhaps considering and trying to ignore) the fact that so much of what we enjoy is made by the dark people caricatured here, who often suffer horribly to make it.

Before I read the article, I took the cake-person to be a black woman, but after I read the article and realized he was a man (and probably white), I questioned for a moment whether that should matter.

It didn’t. I thought it was a brilliant piece.

By: twicker

twicker — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:08:00 +0000

Out of curiosity, how do we know that they’ve been subjected to the same experience?

And which experience? Being genitally mutilated when old enough to remember it vividly? Having your reference group mocked and an effigy of yourself publicly desecrated by a high-ranking government official? Which “experience” have they had, precisely?

By: twicker

twicker — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:05:00 +0000

You sure that the artist knew about the effects? Got a source for that, or are you conjecturing because it’s so absolutely horrific? ‘Cause the reality is that there are a fair number of people who would *not* be horrified this, unfortunately, and would see it as “all in good fun.”

This is fodder for the unforgiving, not some great artistic creation.

By: FP

FP — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:41:00 +0000

I don’t think that this is racist,just provocative.The idea is simple and brilliant.
-People don’t care,they just want the cake,no matter who’s suffering.
You should look at this with different eyes.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:31:00 +0000

Update! Are you kidding?
Just seeing the image before reading a word of this post I immediately recognized the irony of this work (without having known of the artist or their other works) which I then learned to provisionally name the Bamboozled-effect. Having read hundreds of posts on this website myself, this is the first that smacked so immediately of misreading – perhaps you should let an art correspondent handle such posts – how could one not check the artist’s oeuvre to get a sense of this piece? Modern artworks stand alone as much a piece of software or a vehicle – without the production history and peripheral infrastructure one can hardly evaluate. Simplifying much, art in all its mediums is like a ‘non-verbal’ language (of compositions, perceptions, …) where the role of irony, simulated violence, represented atrocities, and their concurrency, with the gendering of circumcision, and normalization of complicity, demands more engaged discussion.
FYI 1 The cake’s body shape appears to reference the canonical artifact, ancient feminine fertility symbol, and precursor to its European mythic namesake, i.e. the Venus of Willendorf.
FYI 2 There are many artists who re-purpose ethnic stereotypes as part of a critical strategy in their work – and several renown artists who have used blackface, the golliwogg, or other anti-African American racist iconography for various purposes – eg. Michael Ray Charles, Kara Walker, Kerry James Marshall, Ellen Gallagher, etc.

By: on female genital mutilation « WeWasteTime

on female genital mutilation « WeWasteTime — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:11:22 +0000

[…] about female genital mutilation in Africa may have been confusing. More on the story, here and here. Share this:EmailPrintFacebookTwitterLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. […]

By: amanda crow

amanda crow — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:39:00 +0000

The ‘Bamboozled’ effect seems to happen over and over again in real life… just look at the career of Dave Chappelle.