After many discussions on the topic, I am moved to respond to the Hood Museum's recent event, "Hip-Hop in the Hood." The party was meant to celebrate the opening of its new exhibit, "Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body." Instead, it served to commodify and objectify the very group of women it claimed to represent.
First, I should say that I love the artwork in the "Black Womanhood" exhibit. The pieces are thought-provoking and incredibly moving. And though I appreciate the Hood Museum taking it upon itself to curate such an exhibit, I take issue with the way the exhibit was framed, marketed and presented to the Upper Valley.
In creating a dance party in the "Hood" (get it?), the museum curators drew a link between black femininity and the first thing that came to mind: rap music. This incredibly lazy attempt at 'relating' to the student body equated the fine art on display with the hyper-sexualized dancers seen in rap videos. The issue of female representation in rap music is well documented and extremely problematic. It is surprising that the Hood Museum would not be aware of such a contentious issue, and it is disappointing that it did not even think to ask.
The irony was not lost on those who attended "Hip-Hop in the Hood." How could we enjoy these powerful images when Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z were blasting in the background? It was worse for my female friends, many of whom expressed being uncomfortable just standing in the gallery. One young woman told me she felt followed by the eyes of community members -- people watching her watch the exhibit. "I felt like I was on display," she said. The Hood Museum aimed to create a dialogue about the objectification and marginalization of the black female body, but in its ignorance it objectified and marginalized the minority women of Dartmouth.
However woeful the fallout of this exhibition, however unfortunate or "innocent" the Hood Museum staff claims this oversight to be, the fact remains that "Hip-Hop in the Hood" is just the latest in a series of events that reminds us how negligent, unthinking and insensitive a place like Dartmouth can be. In my career at Dartmouth, I have seen blood boil time after time, only for a short dialogue to be raised, an apologetic statement to be issued and the whole event to be swept aside and forgotten.
Minority students at Dartmouth have begun to see a pattern -- false or true, they see it -- of exclusion, condescension, othering and misrepresentation year after year. Some might claim the whole thing is a misunderstanding. They're right. It seems as if Dartmouth doesn't understand its diverse communities on the most basic level, and when it tries to learn, it is unable to see past its own hegemonic gaze.
What can the Hood Museum (and, in turn, Dartmouth College) take from this failed exhibition? They can strive to foster spaces of organic expression, rather than paternalistically appropriating a voice that is clearly not their own. They can engage our many passionate, articulate communities who are willing to dialogue if given the chance. They can educate and empower the Dartmouth community with the vocabulary necessary to appreciate diverse art forms, rather than boiling down our complex identities to the least common denominator. Most importantly, they can recognize their own biases and actively work to move beyond them, in thought and in deed.
