Matt Conte
11/4/07
Panhandling for Reparations
Artist Damali Ayo has never been afraid to show off her so called, “Now Art.” Looking to generate social change and awareness about oppression that still lives in society, Ayo crafts artwork that puts viewers in the roles of participants. It is in this unique approach towards artwork that Ayo hopes to produce dialogue which brings to light key social problems. However, while most of Ayo’s pieces are cleverly conceived and produced, one piece of Ayo’s “Now Art” was extremely unsuccessful at furthering its social message. In this piece, titled, “Panhandling for Reparations,” Ayo tried unabashed to bring to light the tragedies that once tormented black society. Yet the only thing this piece of art achieved was creating more tension between whites and people of color.
“Panhandling for Reparations” was Damali Ayo’s attempt to inform the public about the reparations owed to African Americans as a result of slavery. To do so, Ayo created a video that consists of her dressed as a bum while asking white people to give reparations. In the words of the Associated Press, "It was panhandling, it was performance art, and it was a political statement about the legacy of slavery and reparations for black people," (Associated Press). In some scenes Ayo has her mouth taped so she cannot speak while she holds a sign that simply reads, “Reparations accepted here.” In another, she can be seen sitting on the steps of what appears to be an office building of some kind as a sign hangs on her chest that has the words, “200+ Years of Slavery,” written on it as she repeatedly begs white people to pay reparations. Although most of the video consists of her sparsely interacting with Caucasians, (excluding the announcement that she is accepting reparations) when Ayo does encounter a person of the African American race she becomes much more personable and conversational. She tells them that they are entitled to receive reparations because their ancestors were slaves and in some cases even gives them cash.
However, these extreme acts are way too radical and liberal to be considered successful ways of informing the public about a racially-fueled subject. In today’s society speaking of race relations has almost become a taboo subject. Thus, the social activism by Ayo in “Panhandling for Reparations is almost too much for most of the white people in the movie to handle. In the book, One Place After Another, Miwon Kwon describes social activists like Ayo by saying, “The liberal left is characterized as dangerously radical and oppressively dogmatic, either too sentimental and idealistic, thus irrational, or too corrupt and unreliable to offer any satisfactory solutions to deal with many of today's social problems," (Kwon 114). In other words, many social activists, like Ayo, are so passionate and stubborn regarding spreading their message to the masses that they appear ridiculous to the common man. Therefore, these passionate preachers cannot offer satisfactory solution to social problems. This idea of being too liberal and radical can be easily seen in the reparations movie. Most of the white people to whom Ayo is begging for repatriations take one look at her and continue to walk right past her in hopes of avoiding a confrontation based upon a racial subject. Others do pay the reparations, but one cannot be sure that they are paying because they feel as though they owe it to black society. It is very likely that they are paying for the simple fact that they do not want to appear as racists, which they would if they did not pay. Thus, the social message that Ayo is trying to convey comes off to the people in the movie and the viewers of the movie as not a message about slavery, but as a rekindled racial tension that results when Ayo approaches white people while begging for reparations.
With many prominent black people in society today, Ayo would have been much more successful at conveying her message if she were to appear more dignified in the video as opposed to appearing as a bum. Regardless of Ayo’s taboo subject matter, one is naturally inclined to stay away from those who appear to be bum-like beggars on the street. Therefore, by appearing as a panhandler, white people were even more likely to try to avoid her. Those that did avoid her for such a reason appeared in the video to be sort of racist because they were walking right by Ayo’s reparation bucket. If Ayo wanted to get their attention however, she could have ditched the signs and simple bucket in favor of a nice, informative stand. By creating a stand Ayo could have informed the public without being intrusive because people would have come up to her instead of her begging them. This stand would also have alleviate the tension that was created as a result of begging white individuals who did not want to be bothered with Ayo’s message. Instead, the stand would have attracted those who were really interested in the message of reparations.
On the other hand, according to Grant Kester, who wrote the book Conversation Pieces, “The motive behind avant-garde rhetoric of shock and disruption is complex: to make the viewer more sensitive and receptive to the natural world, other beings, and other forms of existence," (Kester 27).” Kester is saying that modern artists like Ayo rely on the aspect of shock in order to make the viewers of their pieces more emotionally sensitive and receptive towards their messages. This accounts for Ayo’s bum like appearance in the video because she was trying to shock the white people into becoming emotionally sensitive to the act of paying reparations. Also, “Many artists are using performance art to create a broader dialogue and bring more attention to social issues.” By performing, like Ayo was as a bum, she was attempting to bring attention to herself in order to make her message of reparations known. Yet when it comes to racial matters, shocking the public is not the best way to inform them because the subject matter can become so emotional. As a result, Ayo’s bum like appearance was unsuccessful at relaying her reparations message because many people avoided her because of her scruffy appearance and racially-fueled message. If she were to appear more dignified, people would have had less of a problem coming up to her to find out what she was all about.
Most devastating to the message about reparations that Ayo was trying to convey during her movie “Panhandling for Reparations” is the fact that the issue of slavery is extremely old and outdated in the eyes of today’s society. With the exception of history class, many people do not encounter the issue of slavery at all. For over three generations, slavery has been abolished in this country. As a result, the idea of having to pay reparations for slavery is a bit absurd. Those alive today are not responsible for what happened almost 200 years ago, and should not have to pay for what they did not take part in. Most people in fact, did not even have ancestors that lived in the United States during the eighteen hundreds. Many new immigrants came to America during the early 1900 hundreds, during a time when slavery was already abolished. Also, even if people’s ancestors lived back in the 1800’s how do we know that they were slave owners? For all we know they could have been part of the underground railroad that helped many slaves escape. On the flip side, if one is even the slightest percentage African American does that mean that they get reparations as well? For if they do, the mass hysteria to receive reparations would be overwhelming because people would rush to get their hands on the “free” money.
Also, unlike other pieces that Ayo created, “Panhandling for Reparations” comes across much more cynical and revenge filled than her other works. Take Ayo’s rent-a-negro website for example. This piece consists of a website created for a faux business that makes its money off of renting out black people. Although it contains an extremely important message regarding the racial interaction between white people and black people, the website conveys this message in an extremely satirical and humorous way. By claiming services such as "Will You Tell Them I'm Not a Racist?" and testimonials like, “I took her to the country club for lunch...all heads turned!” the website cleverly and unobtrusively gets its message across in an assimilation sort of way. Yet “Panhandling for Reparations” on the other hand, contains no humor whatsoever. Instead it consists of what appears to be an extremely saddened and intense Ayo who is begging annoyed white citizens for reparation payments. Out of this intrusive atmosphere, one gets a sense of great tension permeating from the encounter between Ayo and the white people. Because of this tension, the message Ayo is trying to send regarding the payment of reparations, takes a back seat to the apparent racial segregation Ayo is churning up by begging white people for reparations. Even when she speaks in the video, Ayo’s voice sounds almost revenge filled. It has a tone to it that seems very invasive, as if she is trying to make the white people feel as though they need to pay the reparations. In fact, after watching the video in its entirety the only real thing that will be taken away from it is the lingering question of “How does this help society?” The reason for this question is because of the fact that Ayo creates tension that does not need to created in her attempt to preach the message that white people should pay reparations to black people.
Damali Ayo's “Panhandling for Reparations” was unsuccessful at conveying the message she intended to preach. Instead, it was a prime example of socially stepping backwards because it created more angst between people of color and whites. Although Ayo’s so called, “Now Art” looks to generate social change and awareness about oppression that still lives in society, “Panhandling for Reparations” consisted of a tragically flawed approach towards spreading the message of reparations. Because of the fact that the subject deals with racial relations, which has become one of taboo lately, Ayo’s intrusive approach regarding spreading a social message only created tension that needed not to be created.
