Unlearning and Relearning: A Personal Inquiry About the Toxic Inheritance of White Supremacy and Privilege
In: https://digitalcollections.saic.edu/islandora/object/islandora%3A85783
As an art therapy graduate student, I have been confronted with concepts that I was previously unaware of. Throughout the course of my Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling, I have challenged myself to own and address the privileges I have been afforded as a white woman and how this operates in an intersectional framework of white supremacy in our culture. Utilizing art making, I have explored my own history regarding racism and oppression. I endeavor to not do further harm. By being thoughtful and intentional regarding this work, I have realized it is essential not to give over the emotional labor of addressing racism to Brown or Black people. As a white individual, it is my responsibility to inform other white individuals and push beyond cultural humility toward identifying and challenging oppressive ideology in the current cultural and political atmosphere in the United States. The personal body of art created which is embedded fiber arts and papermaking, has resulted in a handmade book combining artwork, relevant scholarship and my own writing as I explored my identity as a white person. I continue to deepen my understanding of how intersectionality operates in my relationships with others and its impact in my work as an artist and art therapist in training.