Bought a print I love, DH is worried it's racist

[NC4T]

Saw it on IG and loved it. Purchased it for the laundry room corridor, but it's arrived and DH is a little worried it might be racist. I can't see how. To me, it's a mum finding a few minutes of calm in the chaos and I love her babies little sleeping face.

We are white Jewish, for cultural context.

What do you think?

People will see it differently and I don't think anyone has the right to tell someone else their view is wrong on this.

It's down to individual perception.

I don’t find it racist. I just dislike it.

Sexist and dated to be using a washing machine and baby wearing?
Maybe she’s just got in from her high powered job and thought ‘shit, I need those trousers for the morning’ and has a glass of chilled white wine waiting in the other room?
I think she looks peaceful.

I love it. So relatable. NOT at all racist!!!

@Queenoftheblitz your interpretion was racist though. I take it your not from a diverse part of the U.K. as if you had more experience with those particularly from African backgrounds you would know that baby wearing on the back is not a sign of class just tradition. Some of closest friends have African backgrounds, British born, highly educated and successful women all wore their babies on their back as shown how to them how to by their mothers even my friends Nigerian mother and auntie showed me how to do it when they came to visit my DS when he was born!

Queenoftheblitz Thu 31-May-18 23:26:09
That's my interpretation of the picture, my first thought and i don't like it.
I'm mixed race and not racist but probably i have a different perspective.
I don't see her as reading a book while waiting for the wash to end, it doesn"'t look like she's loaded up as there's still clothes in the basket.
Please don't tell me my perspective is wrong or i'm racist.
It is art and everyone sees something different.

Well it says more about you than the artist tbf - that you would glean from that pic, whether your mixed race or not (racism by the way isn't limited to white people) people of all different colours can be racist.

To post 'I see it as an african village woman reading the washing machine manual because she's never used one before. So yes i see it as racist'

is vile - you only need click on the link to the artist's website that she is in no way racist and depicts women of all shapes and sizes, colour etc.

African village woman? Being mixed race does not excuse you're insult - shame on you

I have to say if my DH bought that picture..it would be in the bin. I wouldn't be impressed...but not from a racist perspective as we're black.... but more viewing it as sexist.

I'd think he'd lost his marbles.

The other prints I have bought Sandy is a cartoon cat with pink lasers coming out of its eyes and one of some yellow and black sardines. I think he's given up.

Okay my 2 pence:

She’s just checked her diary and realised she’s got some big event (check the earrings people- maybe just me but my baby is 7 months and I have to remind myself to brush my teeth, forget earrings!). The only thing she can wear post-pregnancy needs a wash.

But why is she only just checking her diary now- my theory might not work.

There is nothing insulting about being an african village woman as opposed to a african townswoman.
my perception of the picture is based on viewing some very unrealistic artistic interpretations of black people over the years. I don't need to be told about diversity - I've lived it.
I don't like the picture - amateur technique as well - and have no desire to check the artist out.

racism by the way isn't limited to white people) people of all different colours can be racist.

Queen did not say or imply that only white people can be racist. What a ridiculous overreaction.

There have been lots of different reactions to the image, calling Queen's view of the image 'vile' is horrible. She is entitled to her view. If she sees an African village woman then blame Western stereotypes.

Btw I really like it, but seems like I’m in the minority here.

I think it's about fifty fifty Cheeky.

@SandyY2K I know what you mean about viewing it differently depending on who had it up but I don’t think I would limit that to skin colour. I also think where I would see it would make a difference.

OP in your laundry room only you and your husband would see it. If you like it, put it up.

Is there an art section? I feel like I want to dissect more stuff, love this thread.

*Lacucuracha Thu 31-May-18 23:47:42
racism by the way isn't limited to white people) people of all different colours can be racist.

Queen did not say or imply that only white people can be racist. What a ridiculous overreaction.

There have been lots of different reactions to the image, calling Queen's view of the image 'vile' is horrible. She is entitled to her view. If she sees an African village woman then blame Western stereotypes.*

She did state she was mixed race (apologies for 'abouting' to you queen. To me that somehow implies her opinion is more valid - apologies if that's not the case. To you an overreaction? I disagree.

'I see it as an african village woman reading the washing machine manual because she's never used one before. So yes i see it as racist'

You see this is where I absolutely find offence - that a picture of a mother with baby leaning on a washing machine can have someone come to the conclusion that 'african village women too thick to use a washing machine cos she's black!' obviously my take.

That is bloody offensive!! that someone could take a picture of a mother with her baby and come to that conclusion - it's obviously how she views black women to draw that conclusion. And yes, it's vile.

a cartoon cat with pink lasers coming out of its eyes and one of some yellow and black sardines. I think he's given up.
The poor chap. I feel sorry for him with your weird taste.

@Cheekyandfreaky

Yes indeed.

If I saw it in a more public area of the home...or where guests would go like the loo ... I'd really be unsettled.

As for 'western stereotypes'?? Certainly NOT my thoughts on black women, or white women, fat women, thin women.

I tend to take each person as I find and not sterotype,

Let me reiterate again.
I do not see a "thick african woman who can't use a washing machine".
I see an artist who has that view. That was my first reaction on seeing the picture. My interpretation maybe based on other artwork i have found to be faintly racist/insulting.

Other posters see something different to me. Fine. I'm not telling them their interpretation is wrong because it's not - it's art (badly done) and open to all types of interpretation.

It’s not racist, but it doesn’t
particularly do anything for me - art is a very personal thing though. More intrigued by the location. The laundry room corridor? Is that I the east wing? I want to know more about your house lol

I saw this and immediately thought of the Hottentot Venus. It probably isn't racist (whatever that means in this context) but it is not something that I would want to display in my house.

Happy is right. Baby wearing on the back is just how babies are carried in Africa. Nothing to do with class, all to do with convenience and environment. The mark of a wealthy woman would be in the type of cloth she used to tie the baby on her back. We call it tying not wrapping. I carried my own babies like this in the U.K.

The woman in the pic looks very well to do, not poor. She looks good, is reading a book whilst leaning on the washing machine. Nice neat hair and earrings, comfortable in her own skin. The reason I don’t like it is because black womens bodies have long been fetishised and continue to be.

I don't see her as reading a book while waiting for the wash to end, it doesn"'t look like she's loaded up as there's still clothes in the basket.

Interpret it however you like, but there is clearly water , suds, and clothes in the machine, so there's a wash going in it.

It's a stereotype - the black woman wearing the baby, and odd - she even wears the baby while naked.

Then you throw the washing machine into the mix, and you are in very dodgy territory imo.

It's not as bad as that execrable old Pear's soap ad goo.gl/images/k1yYxN

But there are echoes of that.

Since the Pear's soap ad, and other print ads by soap makers including Pear's way back then (Pears’ Soap claimed to be “a potent factor in brightening the dark corners of the earth as civilization advances”) I don't think you can juxtapose an image of a black woman who has washed every stitch she owns, wearing a baby and standing by a washing machine, without straying into Pear's territory.

You wonder - is she meant to be washing away her ethnicity? Is she washing away her African-ness and becoming western? Does washing do that? If so, is her former state dirty?

In the post Pear's world, I don't think you can get away from the connotations.

There is also the connotation of the black woman as housemaid.

And the nakedness is exploitative.
Would you have bought the print if the woman was a white baby wearing hippie type?
What would you have thought if your H had bought the picture?

I think the black mother is being 'othered' here.

Two thumbs down from me.

Queenoftheblitz Fri 01-Jun-18 00:09:12
Let me reiterate again.
I do not see a "thick african woman who can't use a washing machine".
I see an artist who has that view.

Have you clicked on the link to the artist's other pictures?

Stop putting the onus on the artist - you have the racist view that a black woman I see it as an african village woman reading the washing machine manual because she's never used one before.