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SAY SOMETHING
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THE EXHIBITION
THE EXHIBITION is an exploration of race and racism through images, video, and audio in history/culture/media that promote racism and invite you to reconsider who we are as human beings beyond the construct of race.
The exhibition consists of photographs overlaid with captions, multi-channel video installations designed to create high sensory experiences.
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HERE'S WHAT THEY THINK ABOUT YOU
From an early age, we are programmed by family, academia, culture, and the media to think a certain way, including how we think about our fellow human beings. The concept of race is fairly new in human history dating to the European conquest of the New World and the American slave system. To justify and support the brutal exploitation of Blacks for profit, racist pseudoscientific ideologies were created and spread throughout the world. The constructs of a racial hierarchy and white supremacy still exist and influence our legal, educational, employment, housing, and cultural systems.
The idea that the value of a human being is determined by where he/she/they fall in the racial hierarchy has permeated every aspect of society and is disseminated daily by corporate media and the entertainment and music industries. It taints how we think about others and how we think about ourselves. These beliefs not only impact academic, employment, and housing opportunities, they also impact our health and even life span.
Here’s What They Think About You is designed to act as a catalyst for raising awareness about RACE as a construct and for exploring our racial biases.
In the same way that we have been programmed to think about each other in racial terms, we can deprogram ourselves and begin the process of consigning these beliefs to history and reprogramming ourselves to think about each other as HUMAN BEINGS. We invite you to take a first personal step in improving relations with each other with the goal of eradicating racism completely around the globe.
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HEARD IN NORWAY
Heard in Norway: A wall dedicated to racial slurs heard in Norway. Such as:
DAGO
MICK
NEGER
BRUNOST
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IN OUR OWN COUNTRY
“Racism isn’t only a social problem in the USA. This is an acknowledgment that it’s also a problem in our own country.” Solberg, June 25, 2020
Say Something presents photographs of people of diverse backgrounds who experienced racism in Norway — either when someone remained silent or when someone said something on their behalf in the face of racism — and their messages about racism superimposed on the photographs.
Racism is a global problem. Its harm knows no national boundaries. And while racism transcends borders, it takes on different forms in different contexts. Racism is a sociological construct with context-dependent meaning. Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance can occur on the grounds of race, color, national, or ethnic origin. Victims of racism can suffer multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination based on other related grounds such as sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, social origin, property, birth, or other status. What constitutes racism in Canada may be quite different from what constitutes racism in India, Japan, or Brazil.
Norway is one of the most democratic countries on the planet. It, however, is not immune from racism. Racism in Norway typically is directed against people who do not have white skin or European-sounding names irrespective of whether they were born in or immigrated to Norway as well as the indigenous Sámi People.
Racism leaves scars that can last a lifetime. Denying that racism exists and staying silent in its face is antithetical to eradicating it.
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AROUND THE WORLD
RACISM is not just an American problem. It exists around the world. Racism is not just black and white. It exists between members of the same race as well as between non-dominant racial groups. Racism is not just individual. It is structural and institutional. Racism is not just visible. It is invisible. Racism is not just a thing of the past. It manifests everyday.
Racism is insidious, dangerous, and an affront to humanity. And, it must be eradicated – everywhere.
Racism adversely impacts our emotional, mental, and physical. It also reduces our ability to study, work, and achieve our future goals.
This exhibit explores incidents of racism around the world at various levels. It underscores the fact that racism in all its expressions is an affront to human dignity with perilous consequences.
Racism Around the World seeks to inspire you to take inventory of your thoughts at the individual level and to identify racist bias in order to prevent racist action. It also seeks to inspire you to analyze the structures and systems of which you are a part and identify racist practices in order to institute change.
Together, we can create a world in which diversity is not perceived as a threat but as a source of enrichment in which everyone has equality of opportunity and happiness.
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TRANSCENDING RACISM
An exploration of science-based method to transcend racism and reshape the racism narrative.