%202%20FINAL%20White%20Archetypes%20exhibition%20PIC%20FOR%20WEBPAGE.jpg)
based on true events
[White] Archetypes
by Oluwasola Kehinde Olowo-Ake
*trigger warning: explicit language*
Themes: the glass box; identity; censorship; coloniality; the white gaze
Archetype
"a very typical example of a certain person or thing."
Your identity glassed in to be observed
by prying eyes that come by to pry without words
No words because your blackness ought to exist in floor plans destined for silence,
paired with timber grounds so that the silence of blackness is enunciated only with shoes that kiss these hard floors
For that is all that is required to read and define black in white archetypes-
silence...black silence
as music is made with their own feet
Isn’t it absurd that a “true” depiction of blackness
An expected realisation is that a black body ought to be as an artefact in a museum?
To be seen not heard
To exist without expression, its true expression?
as it is glorified on white plinths positioned under white light to aid the prying eyes
that would later black define
/define black/
as
a stolen artefact that ought to be confined to the walls of clear cubes or rectangles illuminated with white light
Classified, with the names it has been given or numbers they give it
Object Number 16883/1, Object Number 137eleven3/1, case 098, Ag433-af, 00 Object Number Af003
It does not bear the name of its Mother, in fact her tongue is not regarded as worth considering or listening to
It is expected of you to remain stagnant
stay devout to the parameters given you
and they would say, “Of course you can move! No one is stopping you.
Just make sure your furthest action is to the wall and back to position”
1,2
You do not speak, you are spoken for
3,4
You do not complain, you smile and move on
5,6
You are strong, you take the weight of whatever pain the box bestows on you and carry it, it is your cross
7,8
You bear the loss, it is your duty to adjust
9,10
“Don’t say systemic racism”
...
Archetype
"a very typical example of a certain person or thing."
[White] Archetype
"a very typical [white] example of a certain person or thing."
[White] Archetype on blackness
"a very typical [white] example of what the black body is to be
A good nigger
A good nigger works only to appease white senses when it comes to blackness
Appeal to their needs at the expense of your wellbeing
A good nigger is not divisive
A good nigger does not make a fuss about systemic racism
A good nigger speaks proper English and does not give in to the primitive cultural speech urges that possess the tongue ever so often
A good nigger adjusts and does as they are told not as they please
A good nigger does not threaten like the wild bunch do when they
wear their afros up and about,
go out in their numbers,
leave their pick combs in their hair
and listen to that horrid music… God!
A good nigger is learned
A good nigger is not too revealing- they are black but we don’t even notice when they are among us
A good nigger does not succumb to all this protest talk like those rioters
A good nigger avoids conflict
A good nigger speaks monotone
A good nigger adjusts to whatever the western world throws at it
I mean, them
A good nigger turns the other cheek to white supremacists
Heck! A good nigger does not even give into the victim mentality or the claims that “black people are marginalised”
That horrid lie
/define black/
as
A good nigger
a black person conformed to the image of whiteness as their true identity
but a bad one is…
Classified, with the names they are given or numbers they give them
Object Number 16883/1- divisive, Object Number 137eleven3/1- the left, case 098- heretical, Ag433- pagan- af, 00 Object Number Af003- primitive
They do not bear the name bestowed on them by Mother, in fact her tongue is not regarded as worth considering or listening to
They are expected to remain stagnant but they move about in numbers forming armies like black panther parties and many Felas’ and Mrs Ransom Kutis'
They do not stay within the parameters given instead they claim that they deserve to live and are now “fighting for their rights”
…
Have you ever seen the glass break?
© Oluwasola Kehinde Olowo-Ake