Racist Countryside Art

[Thermal]

It isn't.

And your problem with this is?

It would be that last sentence. Think about it.

 

[lionking]

I recently went to an art exhibition which was an arty photographic display of the Finnish forest. I was chuckling at the idea of Finns going to see a display of trees and more trees when we are surrounded by them when we look out of the window. My Welsh pal responded: "Where I grew up there was much art, literature and poetry about the pit and miners, the mountains and the coast to celebrate them'.

It would be that last sentence. Think about it.

Well I don’t have to think about it. Revisionism like this is stupid.

 

[Thermal]

Well I don’t have to think about it. Revisionism like this is stupid.

I'd agree. Why would a Brit tie their beautiful scenery to ethnic purity or whatever the **** they are treating as a natural extrapolation?

 

[lionking]

I'd agree. Why would a Brit tie their beautiful scenery to ethnic purity or whatever the **** they are treating as a natural extrapolation?

There’s also the suggestion (shudder) that they enable nationalism. While at least some on the left favour internationalism, the former, like it or not, is usually a strong unifying force.

 

[smartcooky]

Nope. Those who would call me transphobic for believing that are the stupid.

Woke is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination". It has evolved to include those who have become aware of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights.

It is the racists and bigots of the political right who have co-opted the term and use it the way you do here. When you do that, you parrot the talking points of scummy politicians like Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Matt Gaetz, Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, and vile so-called journalists such as Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. When you use it the way you do, you reveal a lot about yourself, probably more than you would care to admit.
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Sooooort of, but you skipped a stage. That be the one where "AAVE" (read: slang coupled with defective grammar) done been culturally appropriated by crackers. From that point, "woke" done been a joke, and in my most humble of opinions, a highly racist one. Like, if I be usin' AAVE, it be soundin' like I'm ridiculing black folk, right? That's what a white person trying to use "woke" with a straight face sounds like.

So it doesn't sound like something a sincere white person would be using. It was a term co-opted by condescending white people from the jump, and has gone downhill from there. Yes, it gets over-mocked now, but it's not like there is no reason for the mocking. The base idea is sound, that people need to wake up to how problematic and pervasive racism is, doubly so for white people. But Whitey McWhiteface using "woke" ain't a far cry from putting on paternally racist blackface.

Since I regard those racists and bigots, and the politicians and "journalists" in the list above as "crackers", I would argue that I have not skipped any steps.

 

[Thermal]

Since I regard those racists and bigots, and the politicians and "journalists" in the list above as "crackers", I would argue that I have not skipped any steps.

Yeah, and I get your point, it's abused like very few other terms. But I'm pretty sure there's a chicken and egg thing going on. The white boys using "woke" in the first place made it a joke, and the others are sledgehammering it to death.

 

[smartcooky]

I'd agree. Why would a Brit tie their beautiful scenery to ethnic purity or whatever the **** they are treating as a natural extrapolation?

There’s also the suggestion (shudder) that they enable nationalism. While at least some on the left favour internationalism, the former, like it or not, is usually a strong unifying force.

Of course, the simplest answer is that they liked painting scenery, in the same way the Claude Monet liked painting water lilies.

 

[lionking]

Of course, the simplest answer is that they liked painting scenery, in the same way the Claude Monet liked painting water lilies.

Of course. The idea of ascribing political motives to artists is absurd. The few that did are the exceptions that prove the rule.

 

[smartcooky]

Yeah, and I get your point, it's abused like very few other terms. But I'm pretty sure there's a chicken and egg thing going on. The white boys using "woke" in the first place made it a joke, and the others are sledgehammering it to death.

It is the political right that has turned the word into pervasive insult to be leveled at "The Other" (the other being people that do not fit their their idea of "True Americans"^TM, i.e white, straight, Christian and American born!)

 

[Brainster]

It is the political right that has turned the word into pervasive insult to be leveled at "The Other" (the other being people that do not fit their their idea of "True Americans"^TM, i.e white, straight, Christian and American born!)

I'm admittedly less of the political right than I used to be thanks to Trump, but I can say that most on the right use the word "woke" when referring to "white" people who make a performance out of how enlightened they are, sometimes even making a big point that some of their best friends are minorities.

I have (and have had) friends, acquaintances, colleagues and team-mates who were Māori, Asian, Indian and Middle-Eastern. I have had ones who were gay and ones who were lesbians. None of this has ever made any difference to me as regards their acceptance as friends, acquaintances, colleagues or team-mates.

Oooh, how brave and enlightened you are! Woke isn't adequate--you're woke, had a shower, five cups of coffee and an energy drink.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

It would be that last sentence. Think about it.

I thought about it. No revelation. Someone will have to explain it to me.

 

[Orphia Nay]

So how did that trigger word end up in this thread in the first place? Why it was the gallery itself using it as a sort of preemptive defense against the sure to follow accusations of pandering to wokeness. It didn't work, you'd have to be one of these people hoping to find racism in anything and everything to actually believe them.

We don’t know if Syson’s use of the word “woke” was pre-emptive. The Telegraph article didn’t include any questions asked by the interviewer.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

We don’t know if Syson’s use of the word “woke” was pre-emptive. The Telegraph article didn’t include any questions asked by the interviewer.

If it was, this thread shows the preemption was justified.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Of course, the simplest answer is that they liked painting scenery, in the same way the Claude Monet liked painting water lilies.

Constable also lived in "interesting times". While he was painting, some of the damned colonials decided they would throw tea-chests in Boston Harbour as a form of protest and start their own country. There was even some fighting. In response, the British government decided to get rid of their pestilential filth on the far side of the world instead. Can't have the Oirish rag-tag immigrants dirtying up the rolling hills of Somerset!

 

[smartcooky]

I'm admittedly less of the political right than I used to be thanks to Trump, but I can say that most on the right use the word "woke" when referring to "white" people who make a performance out of how enlightened they are, sometimes even making a big point that some of their best friends are minorities.

Companies that do not discriminate against "the other" when employing staff are referred to as "woke" by the scumbaggery of the right (such as Ron DeSantis)

I would be fascinated if you could explain to all of us mere mortals how those employers are making "a performance out of how enlightened they are" Inquiring minds want to know.

Oooh, how brave and enlightened you are! Woke isn't adequate--you're woke, had a shower, five cups of coffee and an energy drink.

It has absolutely nothing to do with bravery or enlightenment. Nor would I refer to myself in those terms.

What it actually has to do with is being brought up in a country that never had slavery, a country that never segregated schools or public facilities, a country that does not deny opportunities to people based purely on the colour of their skin. In other words, I didn't grow up in a white, Christian racist country, which, as I write this, is desperately trying to rewrite their history in an effort expunge references to slavery and to gaslight their fellow countrymen into believing that slavery was "good" for the slaves because they "learned skills".

No, my philosophy is not "brave" or "enlightened" its just normal!!

 

[Trausti]

Companies that do not discriminate against "the other" when employing staff are referred to as "woke" by the scumbaggery of the right (such as Ron DeSantis)

I would be fascinated if you could explain to all of us mere mortals how those employers are making "a performance out of how enlightened they are" Inquiring minds want to know.



It has absolutely nothing to do with bravery or enlightenment. Nor would I refer to myself in those terms.

What it actually has to do with is being brought up in a country that never had slavery, a country that never segregated schools or public facilities, a country that does not deny opportunities to people based purely on the colour of their skin. In other words, I didn't grow up in a white, Christian racist country, which, as I write this, is desperately trying to rewrite their history in an effort expunge references to slavery and to gaslight their fellow countrymen into believing that slavery was "good" for the slaves because they "learned skills".

No, my philosophy is not "brave" or "enlightened" its just normal!!

Certainly one of the substrates of "woke" is an anti-Western, anti-White viewpoint. Like above, where the only countries/people that have to apologize for slavery are in the West. That it was the West, that evil White-Christian West, that set out to end slavery, is conspiciously forgotten. No other culture/civilization arrived at the idea that slavery was univerally intolerable. And for that, the Woke treats the West as the devil.

 

[arthwollipot]

Latest iteration of my theory about the word "woke":

When "woke" is used unironically, idiocy invariably follows.

 

[Dr. Keith]

The thread title really had me hoping that this was a local story.

 

[Norman Alexander]

The King's not English. He's German/Greek.

 

[Roger Ramjets]

Constable also lived in "interesting times". While he was painting, some of the damned colonials decided they would throw tea-chests in Boston Harbour as a form of protest and start their own country. There was even some fighting. In response, the British government decided to get rid of their pestilential filth on the far side of the world instead. Can't have the Oirish rag-tag immigrants dirtying up the rolling hills of Somerset!

'Interesting' times is right.

Slavery and the British transatlantic slave trade

Britain was one of the most successful slave-trading countries. Together with Portugal, the two countries accounted for about 70% of all Africans transported to the Americas. Britain was the most dominant between 1640 and 1807 and it is estimated that Britain transported 3.1 million Africans (of whom 2.7 million arrived) to the British colonies in the Caribbean, North and South America and to other countries.

Anti-slavery campaigners lobbied for twenty years to end the trade and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in Britain on 25 March 1807. It was declared that from the 1 May 1807 ‘all manner of dealing and reading in the purchase, sale, barter, or transfer of slaves or of persons intending to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as slaves, practiced or carried in, at, or from any part of the coast or countries of Africa shall be abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful’. Slavery was abolished in 1834 but in reality for many of those enslaved it continued until at least 1838 through apprenticehip schemes.

During this time Constable was being heaped with praise for his romantic paintings of idyllic British rural life, as dramatic a contrast as you can imagine.

Fast-forward 200 years and the British rural population is still 98% white, and many of them are openly racist. There is plenty of evidence of this coming from victims who dared to visit the countryside, or even worse settle there. This has been documented by the victims themselves and recognized by organizations who are promoting the countryside to city dwellers.

The truth is, the 'idyllic' countryside that Constable painted was propped up by the slave trade. Once you know this, his paintings take on a darker tone. Of course if you are ignorant then you won't see it, which is why the gallery is pointing it out. They didn't dream it up out of thin air, and rural racism is not a new thing - it actually goes back to Constable's time - so commenting on its connection to his paintings is quite appropriate.

This would be true even if the painting was 'just a painting'. If people associate bad things with it then those things are a part of the environment it exists in that should be considered. For example, the painting below seem innocuous enough, right? Until you see who signed it...

Yes, that A. Hitler. Now imagine people arguing that associating it with Nazis and the horrors of WWII is being 'woke'.