Whiteness - MAGGIE HUBBARD

Each painting was a search for meaning.

A meaning of what it means to be white--
a white, middle-class, midwestern woman.

I found these objects, spaces, and images to be signifiers of the values practiced within a culture of whiteness. They appear nostalgic or even banal, yet the shadow of the values connect to a complex racial system.

The paintings were created solely with raw cotton canvas and synthetic indigo ink. Indigo, commonly known as the original dye of Levi Strauss blue jeans, was the second largest commodity of South Carolina during the Slave Era; a pigment produced by enslaved African Americans on stolen Indigenous lands.

As Civil Rights activist Ruby Sales said, “...the problem is not white people. Instead, it is the culture of whiteness. And by culture of whiteness, I mean a systemic and organized set of beliefs, values, canonized knowledge and even religion, to maintain a hierarchical, over-and-against power structure based on skin color, against people of color. It is a culture where white people are seen as necessary and friendly insiders, while people of color, especially black people, are seen as dangerous and threatening outsiders, who pose a clear and present danger to the safety and the efficacy of the culture of whiteness.”

[Ruby Sales: “How we can start to heal the pain of racial division,” TED Salon, September 2018]

To be white means to be connected--
connected to a racial culture, system, and history.