Voices: Makode Aj Linde And That Cake

Further, this is how the” conversation” goes: some white people can exonerate themselves by blaming racism on a Black man/Black people in general, others can exonerate themselves by condemning this shocking isolated example. Either way White people are the ones speaking the “conversation”. African women aren’t even the audience much less asked their opinion when they are the subject of “conversation” the cake has more to say than any African women! He exposed racism by being racist – good job!

In art school I encountered many self-congratulating cretins like this one. They would appropriate a standard shocking image, such as a swastika, and expect to be lauded as deep and meaningful. “You just don’t get my message.” It’s not enough to throw a hurtful stereotype out for viewing (or cutting/eating… !), it must be skillfully done. This is a mess, in every sense. The artist probably counts this as a success “because it gets people talking”, but it’s childishly crude and will serve to further amuse racists.

This whole thing merely harkens back to the classic racial monolith ideology in which one black person apparently speaks for us all. So in that regard, of course those people would see nothing wrong with the cake because a black guy made it so it couldn’t possibly be racist and anyone who complains is just being overly sensitive. And to the “artist” – in what way is portraying a black woman in the most dehumanizing form of blackface not racist? Would the supposed message of your piece really have been lost had she looked like an actual human being? Methinks not. Call me cynical, but I can’t help but feel he did so because he knew it would prove controversial and controversy entails publicity and that’s clearly all that self-serving piece of you-know-what cares about because it’s certainly not the victims of FGM.  

I’m wondering what my response would have been had I NOT just watched the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” Episode where Data is having a nightmare that he is cutting into a cake shaped like Deanna Troi, which screams in agony as people gather around to chop off a piece.  My very first thought was “The artist must have gotten the idea from that episode.  In fact they practically copied it to the frame.” My second thought was “And… Blackface?? Really?? REALLY”  My third thought was “What a lousy point to make at the expense of African survivors of GM, and I bet in all this controversy not a single African woman who has gone through genital mutilation was ever consulted and I bet never will be.”

I didn’t find this performance art piece to be thought-provoking at all, since it failed to start any meaningful conversations about the topic the artist sought to get attention for, FGM. Instead the artist came out looking like he was making a mockery of victims of FGM, what with him “screaming” over being cut. And his donning of a cartoonishly horrendous form of blackface reinforces the notion that he was simply mocking victims of FGM, no matter what his true intentions were behind making this piece. I also hope he realizes that as a male he should have checked his male privilege and should have consulted actual women (particularly the victims themselves if they choose to participate) first before making something that to me looks misogynistic. As for the Swedish culture minister and other women at the event, they should also be reprimanded for their light hearted attitude to this artwork. I look what someone else mentioned earlier, it reveals their privilege to be laughing at something they will never be subjected to. And them willingly going and cutting off a piece “down there” reveals they were actually enjoying and going along with this awful performance (it would have been different if they simply smiled uncomfortably and declined to have any cake). 

I agree, Leo. This performance art piece exposes the Swedish left elite in a diabolically effective manner. After all, no one was forced to cut into the cake or consume it. One could simply not participate in the macabre spectacle. Brilliant!

If this man’s intentions are what they think they are, then he is using a very painful and serious issue to make fun of how racist Europeans are. I can’t stand it when narcissistic and irresponsible “artists” create “ironic art” to show that they are both above mainstream incorrectness and mainstream correctness. Art that uses violent or degrading or bourgeois imagery under the excuse of “irony” is a violent act in itself because it perpetuates violent images, robs them of meaning, and desensitizes the public so that they think these images are OK. This type of art does not help any situation or make the world a better place. It is a type of vandalism that mars the honest and serious efforts of those who truly care. This type of art is very childish and irresponsible, and really all it is meant for is to attract attention and controversy. 

A better comparison Odd Future! I could imagine Tyler the creator baking this cake for his 18th birthday.

Oh wow. So on top of everything, it’s not even an original idea! Fantastic. What an asshole.

It hurt me to look at the cake.  Why does my body, already thought to be available for universal consumption, have to be made in to a gross caricature that further erases my humanity for people to understand it represents a Black woman? I think the Sambo/golliwog thing makes it easy for the people who were supposed to be reached by this installation to ignore the meaning behind it. 

It hurt me to see the smiling faces as the artist screamed.  I could not cut in to anything I intended to eat if it started to scream, squeal, cry, or make any other obvious sound of discomfort.  That they would be so enamored with the smug of their “progressive” attitudes that they couldn’t see what they were engaging in–obvious racist iconography is obvious–and didn’t make the connection between their infliction of pain on this reactive body says an awful lot about the hole where their humanity should be. 

Liljeroth was not “trapped.” No one forced her to smile and laugh at a person screaming as she cut in to their “body.”  I bet if the cake body looked more like her own she would’ve paused at seeing the red inside as she tried to hack off a piece. 

NKR I’m a little in love with your brain.

I am so ashamed. This was posted over at BoingBoing, and most of the comments (from straight white males) were along the lines of “oh this is so incendiary, it’s meant to be offensive, anyone who’s offended by this get over yourselves, you don’t understand art.” 
I tried to explain the meaning of privilege to them in another post shortly before this one, but was just accused of “Trying to shut down debate.”  I give up. :/

@twitter-223065878:disqus No, I got the context. I disagree with your opinion about how “ingenious” (now disingenuous?) this was compared to Anna Deveare Smith, because you, by linking your list, classed all above persons and cake together in your statement of Aj Linde’s art. Demasiada. And we’re talking about more than using FGM to embarrass elites.
@70bdd5fb74aaf00ed0401d0c1d21e050:disqus yes! Such a Tyler move. That was ingenious.

Compared to the US political spectrum, she probably is considered “leftist.” That might be where Reddrabbit is coming from.

A Swedish blogger made exactly that point 
http://seriedagboken.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/lena-adelsohn-liljeroth-kontexten-for-helvete/  in a photomontage where the blogger juxtaposes the cake image with some images of lynchings. These images are all too similar. 

There has been. There’s a relevant article here: 
http://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2012/04/swedish-culture-minister-in-racist-art-row/

I agree.  I heard all this talking and some laughter in the background. 

  Could you elaborate on your view of Kara Walker and her art? I understand the parallel you’re drawing, but I don’t think her images rely on the kind of disingenuous shock value that this installation does. I see this piece as appalling because, as Lola pointed out, it exploits an experience and employs degrading imagery to be “ironic” and provocative. Kara Walker’s art is controversial, but I don’t see it as exploitative or mockingly cynical.

Honestly all of these comparisons are making me realize that white consumers seem to be favoring and raving about the black artists that confirm their negative stereotypes the most. I think Kara walker is really cool aesthetically but again, I don’t know that the narratives that she pushes accomplish anything. They give us the same images we’ve always seen of a by-gone era. I haven’t inspected her art so much and maybe she does this, but I think it would be a lot more interesting if her art gave the never-told realistic account from the black perspective, instead of rehashing white perception once again.  But with Makode Aj Linde, Kara Walker, Tyler the creator… not that all black celebrities fit stereotypes and that all white consumers support these people, but it seems like kind of a trend. I mean, do all of the white reviewers who rave about Tyler the creator and co think they’re excluded from the “white people are racist” joke? There’s a kind of conscious embrace by white consumers of the ironic joke on racist white people but I bet there’s also a subconscious draw to the racist images. I don’t like this idea that some black artists are perpetuating racist art in the first place. It’s so insane that people tolerate and love it. I agree that Makode Aj Linde is obviously a ridiculously extreme outlier and should be judged on a completely different plane. But I just wish in general that the public would support the black artists who perpetuate positive images instead of those that confirm stereotypes, even “ironically”. 

”
I am a member of Vänsterparti, the Left Socialist Party, and had emailed the members of my local party and asked them to put the cake issue on the agenda for last night’s meeting. I am currently working on a statement that our group will publish in the local newspaper, online etc. explaining just HOW and WHY this so-called artwork is offensive as hell. 2 older party members pointed out that Sweden has historically played both ends again the middle. For example during the 1980s leading politicians denounced racism while simultaneously selling weapons to the former-Apartheid regime in South Africa. 

NOTE! I am NOT saying that ALL Swedes are racists, but rather than there is a great deal of hypocracy about the fact that many of them are. This country gets its progressive image from the actions of grassroots anti-racist activists and then the political leaders take all the credit.

I wrote a poem when I saw this : 
I am not palatable. the pain I have experienced can not be easily digested with sugar. You will not speak for me, your art does not seek my voice. Lift your forks from our necks. We will not let you use our experiences to belittle our royalty. We will not allow the assault on our bodies. We reclaim our selves and will not sit quite while we are attacked. You will not injest our bloody sorrows and pity us. You will not use our bodies to nourish your lip service- Pearls and Revolution 

Her response is interesting in that, to her, the issue is partly about how African Diasporans cut Africans out of the conversation as if what they say doesn’t matter. 

I don’t think it’s intentional but I certainly see her point in regards to that. The discussion about race in the world is often focused on the perspectives of PoC in developed countries.

I think she is right about Linde is racially confused and pulling an Uncle Tom to impress his wealthy white friends. 

“Hasn’t enough Black blood been spilled in the name of White supremacy and patriarchy?”

This part of the post misses the point in part imo. The artist criticizes “Black blood being spilled in the name of Ancient (partly Black, partly Arab) African traditions” in the installation if I understand it correctly. The underlying root he attacks imo leaves negligible space to critique to White supremacy and patriarchy – for this case.

Same as above – never experienced a society as a whole and individuals so engaged and brilliant in reflecting hegemonic forms of power, and ambition to toss them – all first in their own, then on the European and then possibly in other parts of the world. The influence of Sweden on EU foreign policy and strategies regarding the Global South, social rights, gender equality, immigration has been most positively advanced compared with the Central and Mediterranean states. Grossly unfair imo.

Sweden (as a country) *talks* a good story but does NOT “walk the walk.”  Even POCs who were born here (speak Swedish fluently & without a foreign accent) are automatically assumed to be less competent than their blond-haired peers. For example,  an Iranian man told me how frustrated his oldest daughter becomes when ethnic Swedes talk to her as those she is an idiot. She was born here, has grown-up with the language and culture, and has always had top marks in Swedish & English in school. Her younger sister is lighter-skinned and has green eyes and is not addressed in the same patronizing manner. Now multiply this example a thousandfold and you will have a more realistic picture of Sweden. 

As far as the EU is concerned, Eva-Britt Svensson has been incredibly important in pushing for greater gender equality.  She recently had to step-down due to health problems, unfortunately, but she is an example of a Swede who really does “walk the walk.”  She is one of the main reasons I joined Vänsterpartiet. 

Wow, the entitlement of that guy.