On Display
Another interesting nugget about the Met yesterday since we're on the subject. My friends and I were standing somewhere in the Asian Art department musing about Asian elephants. All of a sudden, a man, obviously a tourist, of Asian descent walks up with his camera and, and I kid you not, takes a photo. Of us. Did I mention we were standing/sitting in a corner? Did I mention there was nothing behind us but a gray wall? Did I mention this man didn't say a single thing to us, just stood there with an eager look on his face then snapped the photo like we were the ones on display, not the art less than 5 feet away from him? Did I mention the friends I was with are both black as well?
All of us did not know what to do. I tried walking away but didn't quite work. Somehow, a photo of the 3 of us is now going to be among this man's memories of his trip to the Met on hot, sunny day in June of 2017.
This experience reminded me of a similar one I had while in Morocco earlier this year. I was visiting Yves Saint Laurent's luscious Jardin Majorelles when, a fellow female tourist, again of Asian descent, in walking past me, picked up a twist (the style my hair was in at the time), inspected it, looked up at me, smiling approvingly, then walked away. I've never been struck so speechless in my life. Until yesterday.
I understand how seeing something or someone so different from yourself can be a commodity and a novelty that you're intrigued by and would like to know more about. Lots of people from other cultures are fascinating to look at and speak with. Their habits can be different and engaging and open up entirely new experiences you wouldn't otherwise know about. However, there are ways to go about being curious, unwarranted photographs and inspecting of hair are not it.
Again may I remind the general population of the world, black people are not "weird" or something to be gawked at or photographed without permission. We're just different. Frankly, there are so many other ways both those situations could have gone, in more positive, less ogling ways. We were all left in varying states of shock after that experience. All of us are well-traveled but something like that had never happened to any of us personally before. It's a strange thing to be seen as something to be looked at and photographed and peered over. It reminds me of how African-American slaves were gawked at and examined while up on the block being sold. Immediately, the experiences sounds novel, slightly amusing, and strange, but if you let it since in, it has the power to be very upsetting.
Being photographed is not a problem. I've been photographed for street style blogs and stumbled into happenstance street interviews but those are worlds apart from a strange snapping a quick one simply because he's never seen anything like you before. It was violating in ways I didn't know I could be violated. An invasion of privacy even. If he had asked, we probably would have said no, because that's offensive and rude, but at least we would have had a say.
xx
All of us did not know what to do. I tried walking away but didn't quite work. Somehow, a photo of the 3 of us is now going to be among this man's memories of his trip to the Met on hot, sunny day in June of 2017.
This experience reminded me of a similar one I had while in Morocco earlier this year. I was visiting Yves Saint Laurent's luscious Jardin Majorelles when, a fellow female tourist, again of Asian descent, in walking past me, picked up a twist (the style my hair was in at the time), inspected it, looked up at me, smiling approvingly, then walked away. I've never been struck so speechless in my life. Until yesterday.
I understand how seeing something or someone so different from yourself can be a commodity and a novelty that you're intrigued by and would like to know more about. Lots of people from other cultures are fascinating to look at and speak with. Their habits can be different and engaging and open up entirely new experiences you wouldn't otherwise know about. However, there are ways to go about being curious, unwarranted photographs and inspecting of hair are not it.
Again may I remind the general population of the world, black people are not "weird" or something to be gawked at or photographed without permission. We're just different. Frankly, there are so many other ways both those situations could have gone, in more positive, less ogling ways. We were all left in varying states of shock after that experience. All of us are well-traveled but something like that had never happened to any of us personally before. It's a strange thing to be seen as something to be looked at and photographed and peered over. It reminds me of how African-American slaves were gawked at and examined while up on the block being sold. Immediately, the experiences sounds novel, slightly amusing, and strange, but if you let it since in, it has the power to be very upsetting.
Being photographed is not a problem. I've been photographed for street style blogs and stumbled into happenstance street interviews but those are worlds apart from a strange snapping a quick one simply because he's never seen anything like you before. It was violating in ways I didn't know I could be violated. An invasion of privacy even. If he had asked, we probably would have said no, because that's offensive and rude, but at least we would have had a say.
xx
Comments
Post a Comment