Research Assignment About History of African American Art 2

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History of African American Art 2
African American artists increasingly tackle their portrayal in the mass media and demeaning negative stereotypes about them. These artists have explored the subject of stereotypes using different art forms, and have even courted controversy because the art are deemed shocking, demeaning, indecent or perpetuating negative stereotypes. While racial struggles are a sensitive subject, art and creative expression may play an important role promoting positive narratives about African Americans (Chang 142). Even as the audiences’ reaction depends on how they interpret such art works, censorship is unnecessary as this limits the ability of the artists to express themselves.
Michael Ray Charles recognized that commercial art that depicted racist stereotypes was at one time successful, and there was a need to address the reasons behind this (Farrington 342). However, wishing that the past will go away without confronting the inconvenient truths about racism only hides some elements of the past, even as the present situation in race relations and portrayal depends on the past. People are uncomfortable with Michael Ray Charles’s provocative art because racism is not dead. Racial stereotypes are still powerful in advertising and even films, such that characters are represented based what people expect even if this is further from the truth.
Kara Walker has chosen to address the issues of racism and inequalities in the U.S., but her provocative art has also drawn criticism because art her work presents demeaning representations (Farrington 344-345). Even if Walker focuses on sensitive subjects, censoring her work is unnecessary since then there would be more regulations on what is appropriate even when depicting the truth and reality. There is a danger that censoring art works will set precedent for more censorship, because a section of the society finds the art work sensitive. What some people object to because of its shock value does not necessarily have the same effect on all audiences and viewers. At times, art censorship may be necessary when there is violation of common decency, and even the works of Kara Walker has offended some African Americans. Such controversial artworks also perpetuate stereotypes all in the name of art. However, Artistic censorship has been used to st...