I am an artist. I am not the most talented or skilled artist in the world. I don’t have much formal training. But I like to think that I possess a higher than average amount of artistic talent, and that I’ve improved my skills over years of practice.
I am proud of my talent and my skills. But I am even more proud of the meaning and purpose behind my art. Through my drawings, I honor historical figures. I try to showcase their beauty, uniqueness, and diversity. I bring the inhabitants of my imaginary world to life in this world, and I keep historical figures alive in the present. This is what I strive to accomplish with my artwork. I am proud of my artwork because of its beauty and also because of its significance.
My art is an expression of love, respect, and celebration.
Kara Walker’s art, on the other hand, is an expression of contempt.
I’m not able to type out what Kara Walker did, because describing her act in words feels like it would trivialize its awfulness and moral repugnance. Google it if you are curious (and have a strong stomach).
Kara Walker’s art (if it can even be called that) is an expression of contempt for Stonewall Jackson. Because he looked different from her, dressed differently, spoke differently, lived differently, and thought differently, she decided that he deserved to be cruelly dismembered, sliced to pieces, mocked, ridiculed.
Walker’s “art” is an expression of contempt for the original artist, contempt for the time, effort, care, and talent that he put into his sculpture. In a breathtaking display of intolerance, she presumed that she had the right to destroy his art and grotesquely reassemble it into a mockery of its original meaning. Because he saw the world differently from her, she decided that his perspective didn’t matter. Because he came from a different culture and a different time, she decided that his work ought to be erased
And worst of all, Walker’s “art” is an expression of contempt for the very idea of nonconformity, of resistance to authority, of being different.
The message that Walker sends with the monstrosity that she falsely characterizes as art, is that only her perspective matters, only her feelings, only her thoughts. Those who are different deserve to be dismembered, sliced to pieces, destroyed. Our perspectives, feelings, and thoughts erased. Our pain mocked and ridiculed.
An artist had the audacity to create a sculpture honoring someone who rebelled against authority. So Kara Walker sliced the sculpture to pieces and reassembled it into a nonsensical monstrosity as if to say, see, this is what happens when you disobey. This is what happens when you don’t comply. This is what happens when you think for yourself, when you diverge from norms, when you live in a way that society does not approve of.
Only people like me matter, she proudly proclaims. Only people who are “normal,” only people who are like the majority.
I saw a social media post containing images of Walker’s monstrosity, as well as an earlier sculpture depicting her son holding a Confederate soldier’s horse by the tail. I was struck by the irony: the fact that Walker even has a son demonstrates her immense privilege compared to someone like me. The fact that she has a child demonstrates that has the capacity to enter into a sexual relationship with another person, as well as the capacity to be responsible for another human being. Due to my autism and post-traumatic stress, I am not able to form genuine connections with any human beings other than my parents. True friendships are impossible for me, and the prospect of having sex with another person is a complete nonstarter. This is why statues are so important to me, and their destruction so devastating. Yet Walker chooses to participate in that destruction. Enjoying a life filled with relationships that are considered basic to most people and that are outside the realm of possibility for me, she actively adds to my suffering, and then makes a mockery of my pain, all while claiming that because I happened to be born with light skin, I am “privileged.”
There’s nothing honorable about punching down, nothing courageous about beating up on those who lost a war, nothing thoughtful about attacking and condemning an unpopular minority, nothing creative about rubbing salt in the wounds of those who are already suffering.
My art is an expression of diversity and of inclusion. Through my drawings, I attempt to portray a world in which all different types of people thrive and coexist happily, a world in which all different people are represented, respected, included.
Kara Walker’s “art” does the opposite. It sends the message that only people like her have a right to exist, and that acceptance should be reserved for people who obey authority, comply with norms, and are like the majority. Her “art” is an expression of cruelty, of bigotry, of intolerance.
My message to Kara Walker is this: Inflicting harm, pain, and ridicule on people for being different does not give you the moral high ground. It’s actually the very essence of what it means to be immoral. You probably think that you’re being thoughtful, creative, revolutionary, subversive. But in reality, you’re just being a bully.