May 21st, 2024
"Blurring the lines"
i would like to offer a perspective on the "that blur the lines of race & gender and reflect upon virtual versus real world identities" line that got so much flack yesterday...
this very statement is one of the core principles that got me excited about becoming a citizen of the internet in the first place. on the internet, it doesn't matter where you are from – only what you can "do".
i grew up, for the most part, in rural Bavaria, Germany - and before the migrant crisis of the last 10 years, it was very very rare to meet a person with migrant background here. of ~1000 students at my school, i was the only one with "that weird name". i see myself as insanely privileged and am grateful for the opportunities i have gotten. but i know exactly what it feels like to not get invited to an interview because the person on the other side is afraid of or weirded out by my background. or what it feels like to try to rent a flat and get immediately rejected, just to have my mother (with her german maiden name) call 5 minutes later being warmly welcomed to check out the space. these things, while annoying and sometimes disheartening, are tiny and unimportant.
but from a global viewpoint, racial prejudice is still very very real. and so is gender prejudice. or prejudice about age, appearance, taste, ... maybe not in our immediate reality, but around the world people are excluded, oppressed, persecuted, imprisoned and killed for their beliefs and heritage.
yet on here, we are all citizen of the internet. we speak one common language, we transact with the first global, borderless assets.
blurring the lines that separated us in the past is exactly what i feel like we are (or aught to be) doing here.
some artists do this by removing all color. some by adding more. i believe the underlying striving is the same: we want to belong and we simply want to be accepted, and either point away from a reality we want to change, or towards one we wish to exist.
Super Cool World by Nina Chanel Abney
and this yearning i'm certain we will one day be able to elevate to just seeing the beauty, potential, strength, and contribution each of us bring to the table, regardless of our background.
the politically loaded yearning to fight for ideology is just saddening. imagine looking at this scene as an alien observer for a few minutes.
i know we can do better...
we need art – and sometimes maybe exactly that kind which we don't "like", find ridiculous or even appalling on first sight.
growth is infinite .....::!!