Deconstructing the Bullshit of the Arts
We just ended Hispanic Heritage Month, and just like any other culture-designated month of the year, I completely ignored it and whenever I saw people I follow on social media sharing their cultural pride posts and images, I just rolled my eyes and moved on. I never fit in with the label Hispanic, or any other label I get slotted into. Whether it be my expression of masculinity (I have been accused of both not being masculine enough and for having toxic masculinity by different people) or my expression of culture, or in the stories I tell, I never quite fit in. For a long time this bothered me, but I’d deflect it onto other topics, such as my essays on the wealth gap of artists and the struggle to be a parent while also being in the arts world. But those deflections were chosen because they are fairly innocuous and most people can read them and nod their heads in understanding if not approval. But the real meat of my discomfort with the arts world is that I cannot pretend that anything I am doing publicly is not tied to marketing in the name of self-serving ends.
I wish I could have a dialogue with artists about what enormous bullshit identity politics is. All BIPOC, Latinx (or Latiné), AAPI, queer, immigrant, non-binary, etc. does is contain an entire people into a marketable box. This is also true of the trauma porn and victim-based content that our groups produce en masse on social media. We have trauma-based content, whether as stories, or series, or poems, or memes because it makes money. When Indigenous People’s Day occurred last week there was so much media content around it and yet nobody asking why that content exists, when the answer should really make us question what we are doing. For a segment of society, especially online, being indigenous or supporting indigenous people has become profitable. Merchandise, advertising, festivals, private events, ceremonies — all of it makes money. When indigenous people and causes weren’t profitable pre-internet, most people never heard or cared about them. Entire industries exist to support BIPOC content, whether involving social justice or immigration, and the virtuousness of that content allows its supporters, most often people passively sharing content on social media, to feel good about themselves without questioning the ideological underpinnings of what is being promoted.
For instance, there is an event going on at a local college soon that glorifies a pair of Mexican immigrants who served in the US military and were deported, and how they worked to bring back other deported veterans. That sounds very honorable, no? But like with everything tied to immigration, there is no questioning of the white supremacist undertones of what those men did. These veterans are being given valor and nobility for putting the US and its interests ahead of their culture. The idea of returning to “savage” Mexico is the root of the injustice they face. How dare the “civilized” US banish these heroes to the backwaters of a corrupt, inferior country. We aren’t going to talk about the corruption and evils of the US, only of Mexico, and these men’s desire to rid themselves of their brown culture to be embraced by white America will be completely overlooked. As I’ve written in my past Latino Rebels articles, the Latino movement is based on internalized racism and conservative, white supremacist attitudes where the US is the savior of black and brown people.
A complex, difficult conversation could happen around such an event that examines culture and pride and the thorny ideas around finding a place where you belong, but that isn’t the point of an event like this. The point is that these veterans check a box that is marketable, and there is an audience who will gravitate to their story, find it inspirational, and the organizers can exploit the non-reflective uplift to their own financial gain.
The content being made by black and brown creators all fit this mold. Gentrification is a popular topic where I live, and a lot of content has been made around it, but in all of that content, Latinos are portrayed as cardboard saints with little to no complexity outside of being victims, and white people are cartoonish villains. The far more compelling way of telling the story of gentrification would have to take into account the conditions of poverty, both systemic and personal, that allows for gentrification to occur. Poor people are both not at fault for the conditions of poverty and very much at fault for making life choices that keep themselves in poverty.
The families in these neighborhoods do have good, hard working people in them, they also have drunks, drug addicts, abusers, idiots, and assholes who make the situation worse for everyone. The neighborhoods are at least partly to blame for their own sad state. A more honest depiction of gentrification would have to confront the Latino character’s bad choices as well as choices families make to assimilate to white culture while belittling their own. These topics are as important in understanding the issue as confronting white people for their glib indifference to the poor and often unapologetic racism. But if an artist talked about gentrification with that level of nuance it could alienate Latinos who don’t want to confront their demons. At least white progressives are in a state of self-flagellation over their guilt that we can exploit them, but Latinos really don’t want to hear how they’re fucking up.
I’d argue outside of guilt-ridden white liberals, nobody in the US really wants to confront any of the major issues facing what is a crumbling, decadent empire. And even the soul-searching white liberals do is pretty superficial. But when it comes to black and brown people, facing our demons beyond depictions of victimization from outside forces is a non-starter. We are happy to give in to the capitalist machinations that run the arts world to produce our content. It allows us to seem like concerned, virtuous citizens when all we are really doing is paying lip service in a way that can easily be packaged and commodified.
There should be labels on all public announcements by artists that the reason for this or that post is that they are trying to make money. We have to raise awareness to sell our art, no matter the form of it. And when we post about social justice issues it is to promote our personal brand so others will buy our art. Nothing we are doing is virtuous. We are just being vultures. When I do an audition call for one of my shows and use non-binary or BIPOC or any other label it is because I know that by doing so, I can advertise my show on more platforms, and therefore raise more awareness and make more money, hypothetically. I play the game to that extent, but the work I create doesn’t fit any sort of box.
There is a subversive glee at promoting something like it is mainstream and then when audiences see it and realize I am not their average Latino/x/é, it is too late for a refund.
I’m not looking to be virtuous, at least not publicly. You won’t see me crying for justice on social media or doing any public acts of service. If I do something noble I’ll keep it private, and I don’t mind you thinking I’m a jerk for breaking all the bullshit down and exposing artists as hypocrites. It is, after all, very fun.
All I want is for you, dear reader, to walk away from this piece and not look at another artist’s social media posts in the same way. I want you to be aware of the giant con job that social media is and for you to remember that the people who scream their virtues the loudest are usually pieces of shit. Or at the very least, desperate to make a sale. But it’s all selling. Whether its a product or a persona.
In the years that Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Pride Month, and every other “special” month has come into existence, not a goddamn thing has changed. And that, ultimately, is why people in power dole out those months, and instead of challenging those hand outs like an artist should, black and brown artists have gobbled up the crumbs thrown at their feet, and are now part of the problem.