Representation Matters. We Need to do it Right.
FAIR Substack | Angel Eduardo
In this personal and insightful piece, FAIR Advisor Angel Eduardo argues that true representation is more than cosmetic— “Because art is so integral to the human experience, it’s no surprise that we often focus our energies on correcting the record through art… My concern is that we undercut our own enterprise if we fail to engage ‘representation’ with the depth and nuance that it deserves.”
“When we engage representation in this [cosmetic] way, we weaken its meaning,” he argues. “We make a mockery of the deep human connections that art and media allow us to cultivate—across time, culture, borders, and, yes, even the identity groups we divide ourselves into. Taking this surface-level approach to representation forces us to continue glorifying details about us that are, at best, as informative about our true selves… At worst, it causes us to reify concepts like race that we should be working to leave behind completely.”
Eduardo writes that by an answering the inevitable question of who gets to count as “representative,” we “veer into essentialism and, by extension, tokenism… [which] can also quickly lead to exploitation and erasure… We say we want representation, but what we get instead are avatars and caricatures. We behave as though all people from a particular identity group share a single experience… we end up flattening a wide range of humanity into a single narrative, trap ourselves in it, echo it in real life, and rage against attempts by others to complicate or deconstruct it.”
“Rather than having art and media expand our horizons, we use it to gatekeep, essentialize, and pressure others into conformity,” he explains. “There is so much more to art, and to us. Reflection and representation aren’t the same thing, and I would argue that reflection is a narrower experience we shouldn’t dupe ourselves into preferring. Complexity abounds; we should embrace it.”
Eduardo sees hope in the “harmony” that true diversity can manifest, and bring— “We can use [art] to improve upon our history, and to weave a wider range of identities, ethnicities, cultures, and perspectives into our artistic and social tapestry—all without tokenizing ourselves or each other in the process. True diversity is a strength, and we should continue to pursue it both for its own sake and for ours.”
Related:
Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s Essay on Literary Freedom as an Essential Human Right (2021)
The Limits of Lived Experience (NYT 4/24/22)
