'I feel I'm part of the problem because of the compromise I made to be in the room': UK artists of colour and racism under liberal capitalism

Keywords: racism, anti-racism, liberalism, capitalism, artist, UK
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 5

Abstract

Anti-racism discourses are particularly prevalent in the UK visual and performing arts circles, which appear to be the very antipode of "liberal democracy's illiberal turn" (Koch 2018). Despite being devoid of apparent racial violence, racism persists in these liberal social milieux in the form of racial invisibility, tokenism and microaggression. Many tend to conceptualise racism as illiberal, but under liberal capitalism, racism can adapt to anti-racism discourses to survive. This paper evidences this point by exploring UK-based artists' of colour experiences and reflexive commentaries of being on the receiving end of these subtler forms of racism. First, artists of colour suffer from professional invisibility — the privileged blindness of decision-makers in the highly competitive art sectors and a reliable indicator of social exclusions. Against this backdrop, although a few of them are included in artistic projects, they may still work in a discourteous or hostile social environment that resists systematic changes. Consequently, while familiarising themselves with critical race discourses, they have to live with such tokenism in the liberal capitalist climate. Indeed, because they value their artistic identity more than their racialised identity, their engagement with critical race discourses may be rooted in their pursuit of autonomy instead of equality. Last, their failed collaborations with those whom they thought of as 'white allies' reveal their states of being dominated by white dominance. By showing how anti-racism practices are subordinated to liberal ones, this paper suggests that evolving forms of racism can be best understood in relation to liberal capitalism.