Black and Blue

This is an experimental installation questioning what it means to be Black and middle class in America.   In my experience it is a strangely privileged isolation and an ironic gift: access without belonging.  There are several images in the series which are accompanied by audio excerpts of a Malcolm X speech, Messages to the Grassroots (1963):

There were two kinds of slaves, the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good because they ate his food that he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they loved the master more than the master loved himself. They would give their life to save the master’s house quicker than the master would. If the master said, “We got a good house here,” the house Negro would say, “Yeah, we got a good house here.” Whenever the master said “we,” he said “we.” That’s how you can tell a house Negro.

All Images are archival pigment print 30″ x 40″ inches