Racism in Art School (Massart, this is a callout)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 20 окт 2024
- Oh yes, we're going there.
Various Massart links:
• President Nelson's address: massart.edu/si...
• President Nelson stepping down: massart.edu/ma...
• New President, Kymberly Pinder: massart.edu/of...
Catch me on Instagram, Tumblr, and Etsy at BianaBova
To be clear, I'm NOT cancelling Massart in this video and I'm NOT saying that Massart is the most racist art school. I have no idea how the racism at Massart compares to other art schools, but I doubt (or at least, hope) that it's the worst. Unfortunately, as of right now in 2020, there's no way for you to not experience racism at school, or anywhere else in life. That's unavoidable. So please don't watch this video and just immediately scratch Massart off your list of schools to apply to, thinking that that will prevent you from experiencing racism at school.
This video was meant to call out Massart so that they feel pressured to do better by their students AND give you all full disclosure about what you may experience by going there. Just because there aren't other call out videos about other schools on the internet doesn't mean that those other schools are anti-racist utopias.
I still think Massart is, generally speaking, a good school (and lord knows I've said plenty of positive things in other videos), but I knew it would be disingenuous of me to not be 100% honest with y'all about the negative aspects as well.
I believe that there's no such thing as "the perfect school," and that incoming students NEED to have a proper, well-rounded understanding of the school they're about to attend.
You can watch this video and decide not to attend-I'm not stopping you; that's your decision to make. But please don't think that other schools are that much better.
Racism everywhere in many other schools. It is sad but true. It is not just blacks vs whites.
@@NerdNest0 yep
Why do you think a group of people based on skin color and percentages is racist..?
It's a paradox. As BIPOC we are told to work hard from young, subconsciously trying to make it so that when we grow up and enter white-dominated working fields, our grades/ achievements are what is seen first, and not our skin colour. yet, when were are in these positions our capabilities are more often than not undermined, we have to put up with microaggressions and occasionally outright racism, because of our skin colour.
intentional or not, it's disappointing that art communities which are meant to be more if not the most forward-thinking still "struggle" with racism. being racist is a choice, it is a conscious decision with people consciously upholding it.
To all my BIPOC artists, know that you and your art is valid and that it's imperative that we keep showing up and taking up space, especially in the art world.
also fuck the MacBook elitism
Then the racists say we get the job cause we're not white. Like I really can't even
It's CRAZY to me how even in more liberally-inclined spaces, like art schools, there can still be so many systemic issues (sadly, not just racial ones). It makes me mad that my black friend groups were constantly talking about and dealing with their daily microaggressions, but all the white friend groups seemed completely oblivious.
I'm currently a BIPOC student at MassArt, rising sophomore in Illustration. I have never experienced such blatant racism until I started going on to MassArt. It's even worse when you're also LGBTQ+. This is just a fraction of some of things I've experienced:
My roommate had a class with Sarah Bapst (I'm calling her out by name bc this has gone on too long). Their work was continually ignored and when it wasn't, she would misconstrue the actual meaning when it was related to being BIPOC/LGBTQ+. One of the other POC we knew had a friend who took her class the year before, and during an assignment where they had to dip their hands in wax, he told her that he had issues with heat and couldn't, otherwise he would pass out. She responded by saying his "African tree-climbing hands" should be able to handle it. No reprimand or suspension.
One of my white professors decided it would okay to tell me during a one-on-one meeting about my piece that had a pattern of lips in different colours that she didn't want to say it during class critique, but they were very "African-American" lips and how that clearly related to me. Same professors that got me sent to the hospital by melting wax directly behind my seat after I had already explained I have asthma.
One of my professors last semester had a full conversation with my friend, the only other black person in that class, where he continually called him by my name. His excuse when he called him out was that we "looked similar." I'm over 5 inches taller than him, he had green hair, and this was after three weeks of class. This professor also wanted us to read and discuss about a book called "The White Negro." There's so much more from that class but that's just off the top of my head.
For one of my first semester classes we had to to a project relating to a current issue in the world. I did police brutality, and another white student did racism in regards to black people. I'm not going to directly accuse him of copying my design, but his was just like mine, with less on it. The professor hung up his in the hall in South. When it came time for critique, only the professor dared to ask me questions, and one of my last answers was about how so much of American culture is black culture, repurposed for a white audience. The other student went right after me, and she said "well, they're similar but I think that's fine." I asked what he thought we should do to combat the issue and his answer was "I don't know." One of the other white students, bless her heart, answered correctly for him, but god what a mess.
One of my other professors was generally very good about being sensitive to these things, but we had to talk about gender in relation to myths and stories, and I was the only Native American person in the room, so I ended up talking for 15 mins when it came up. I mentioned my mum was two spirit, and she then asked me to explain how that works for her. I said I was Cherokee before I started speaking. It's forbidden to share that kind of information, and I told her as much. She seemed very put off when I said that, but she was asking about my mum's gender, not my own, so I wouldn't have anything to say regardless.
Same class that was very quiet when I made my project for that topic about being a nonbinary lesbian. :)))))
I had the privilege of having Stephen Hamilton last semester and I sat with self service open for an hour before registration to make sure I would have his class again. He showed me things about black culture I had never even heard of, and it was reaffirming in a way that's hard to describe. You get told your whole life that your race doesn't amount to anything, and then Stephen sweeps through and shows you how false that is. He should be tenured, and he's not, and it makes me mad, because all of the incidents with professors I just described, except for the Native American conversation, happened with a professor that was old, white, and tenured. It's frustrating.
so sorry to hear so many shitty things happened to you there :(
I think you explained this really well so I don’t think you should worry about you not being black and talking about this. :)
Thank you, love! I always feel so sO weird talking about racial issues, because while I am technically part black, my lived experience is that of a white woman. It was such a mental and moral struggle figuring out if I wanted to tackle these issues on my channel, but ultimately, I knew using my platform for good would be far more important than keeping quiet and playing it "safe."
Biana Bova yup! Thank you for sharing! This video helped a lot to addressing the issue and the more people talking about it and ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING About this, the more people will realize that what they are doing is just wrong, especially important for the future generations and I think it has been getting better since all of the mess had started since I am a middle schooler and never noticed racism at my school and never to myself! :) thank you!!!
@@BianaBova interesting because you don't look white at all. Your facial features look like a black person, you just have really light skin.
I'm currently a junior at MassArt and I had Stephen Hamilton in my second semester as a freshman! He is absolutely amazing and I learned so much from him and I was absolutely SHOCKED that he doesn't do thesis. I also had Joel Gil, another black professor for Digital Illustration my sophomore year first semester, new professor who came in 2019 (he's also my advisor) he's also very good and VERY honest. I'm not BIPOC but I've noticed the lack of diversity of the professors since I came into the school. And while I've had some great experiences with some....there are definitely some white professors I've had that should not be teaching 🥴 MassArt needs to step up and now that Nelson is gone I'm hoping the new president can bring some change to the school.
I really appreciated how you approach this video, the angles you took and respecting, not using your friends past trauma, very well done video
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it 💕😭
Thank you so much! I’m interested in going to art school in the future and I’m nervous about going since I went to a school I wanted to go to one summer for a a week program and it was diverse but still majority white. I was one of the few black people there and when we went into groups I was the only black person in group of 10 to 20 people. I know it’s about the education but I’m still nervous dealing with the racism or just microaggressions. The school I want to go to is in a big city but it’s still pretty small. I’m just hoping I even get a chance to get into the chance, but again thank you so much Briana!!! You’ve honestly helped with so much with videos let that be art or just art school!!!! But yeah you’re one of my inspiration for drawing and illustration since I just started in February anyways thanks again ❤️❤️
Thank you so much, I'm glad my videos have been helpful!! And I hope that no matter what school you end up going to, that you'll have an amazing experience 💕
This was a really insightful video! Not looking into enrolling to Massart or anything, but I am looking through universities. And now, I'll definitely be looking into how they handle/ what they have done for BIPOC students.
Thank you!!! Lots of luck to you with university applications. I don't know if there are any "good" art schools when it comes to racism, but I do think it's important to observe how these schools are responding and changing to be better for ALL of their students
As a recent alum, I can completely relate to what you're saying. At my time at MassArt, I experienced multiple instances of both micro and flippant aggressions. I had a tenured professor tell me asian people were only good for dumplings. I had a professor say there were no BIPOC in a class, despite there being latino, and various asian students in the class. I sat in classes where students called BLM a terrorist group. There were multiple occasions that the graphic design department in particular favored white males, giving them awards that women, and specifically women of color, were deserving of as well. My department had no BIPOC teachers. Thinking back on my art history classes, I learned nothing of African, Latino, American [native / pacific islander] or Asian art. There were multiple times I was the BIPOC student in the classroom, and I had to speak on behalf of that whole community. Students that were ESL struggled, and professors often would either target them or ignore them. Outside lecturers were mostly cis-white heteronormative men, we fought to get women to speak, let alone BIPOC. On a classist note, students shelled out thousands [if not tens of thousands] of dollars over the course of 4 years to pay for tech, supplies, printing. Students that couldn't afford to live close to campus suffered due to their ridiculous attendance policy and risked automatic failure if arriving late [despite the inconsistencies in Mass transit etc.] Students that couldn't afford unpaid internships or apprenticeships suffered as well and the community did little to encourage employers to pay interns. MassArt puts itself on a pedestal for its liberalism and progressiveness, but I can speak from the inside out, MassArt and the design community at large, has a long way to go.
oh and one last thing - same professor that told the black student he would fail without a macbook pro asked me in front of my whole class if I'm adopted when I told her I was doing a project on asian american culture; just because I don't fit into your stereotypical idea of what I am doesn't mean I'm adopted and even if I was, none of your business, not a question you would ask anyone.
@@michellewang1465 oh so you /know/ who I'm talking about 👀 I'm sorry you had to go through all that bullshit. I remember being in an 8am class with lots of poc transfer students that had to take the t (we're talking like red line then connecting over to green) just to get to class. Unsurprisingly, half the class was always a good half hour late, and even the though the prof kept nagging them to just "leave their apartments earlier" it was just futile. It's also crazy how much harder classes are for poor students than wealthy students. Some people I knew worked one or two jobs on top of classes, basically never sleeping and always turning in half-asses work late, while wealthier students could just hang out in the studio for as long as they pleased. I'm sure some of the profs tried to be understanding, but it's hard not to have your impression of a student be tainted by what's seen as lazy effort
Thank you a lot for this video! Being a Black high school senior artist it has been hard finding a college/university that I could thrive in. Also being both light skin and black, personally going through both racism and colorism/shadeism, I really appreciated the way you analyzed everything in the video.
Glad you liked the vid!! I hope you have an amazing, positive experience at whatever school you decide to go to. Massart's not perfect, and I strongly doubt that there are any art schools that handle racial issues well, but I felt it was important to lay out all the facts so students like you can make more informed decisions about what school you want to go to.
"I can't find my cellphone. Quick, round up the usual suspect!!" Sounds like the wrongly accused Black student in this case was a hell of a lot more gracious about it than I would have been as a paying customer there. Not a MASART student, but a Wellesley graduate's parent. Visiting that place was interesting, especially when my wife and I were helping our kid move out, and we were moving stuff from her room to our car after dark, and this was AFTER their new Black president took office.
OMG hey DrQuizzler! :D I wish I knew more/remembered more about the aftermath of that incident, but everything I knew was grapevine conversation. I can only hope that with new leadership, this shit never happens again, and that if a professor behaves this way, that they'll ACTUALLY be disciplined, not just be slapped on the wrist.
I am a Visual Artist and I attended several art schools in New York City F.I.T Pratt Institute, Cooper Union and Lastly SVA where I attended for 5 years before being illegally Kicked out of after voicing my complaint to a chairmen that there was widespread institutional frued going on concerning myself and other minority students.. Yes most of the art institutions I'm aware of are predominatly racist. Most of them barely even have a African Studies class .
How did you attend so many??
I went to SMFA which is just down the street from Massart. I am not a person of color but when I talked to my friends that are they generally felt safe on campus I cant speak for the larger Tufts community because our school is so removed from the main campus. teachers where generally supportive of every student but i can name only 3 POC professors. I have seen other teachers that taught CE courses but CE classes don't count towards undergrad or grad degrees and are discouraged from taking the classes because paying for a class that wont help u graduate when you're already paying thousands already isn't financially feasible for most students. There are a lot of visiting artist of color from all different backgrounds that come to give lectures and exhibitions but I myself and others wanted more than a temporary discussion. We have alumni from so many walks of life; i was hoping to take a photo class based around Hispanic and African American history because I had other classes that didn't cover those topics but i could never find like that when I was there. What really bothered me was when we had art shows and the staff would talk about black students work as almost being exotic. I had a friend who did wood cuts of African tribes and plants and she told me that she hated being used as an example during student tours because they used here as the token- gold standard black student in a white school. her work was amazing but she just wanted to be a student that made great work and not just a black student.
Definitely similar to massart-the school as a whole is predominantly white, but will have tons of non-white visiting artists and lecturers to kind of fill the diversity gaps. Don't get me wrong, it's great having so many talented BIPOC artists come and share their work, but an occasional one-hour lecture doesn't make up for an entirely white staff. Students need representation from faculty to help create a genuinely safe space for them.
And I totally hear you on the weird tokenism. We don't have many black students, yet somehow massart's instagram has exclusively been showing students of color every since BLM hit in early June.
Those black support groups are just there because BY LAW they have to make those spaces. The fact that they're not supported is just a big ol reflection of the state of education and the country's issues with talking and not walking
I actually transferred out of MassArt recently and I kinda know about JET since I worked for the international student office. So far, they seem to be hosting dinners with a bunch of faculty and students to "unite" them of sorts (now they are limited to Zoom sessions because of COVID). Also they seemed to have different meetings for different ethnicities, kinda like separating students from each other (like Asian-Pacific, for example). The JET office itself is pretty new, I think they started out actually when you were graduating. I am not POC by any means, but I can kinda relate with the struggles of BIPOC. I agree with you though, NO GROUP/CLUB/etc can fix systematic racism. Only the curriculum can for the first-year students. We do lack action here in Massart.
As for the faculty, I heard that it is extremely challenging to hire someone to be the full-time faculty in Massart because of it being a state school (or that's what I heard from my fellow friends in GD department). But some departments lack good teachers. It is not normal when the entire class of 60 people want to get into a section with one teacher (with max of 15 students).
Thank you for the extra info on JET!!! Someone in the live chat also mentioned that the group had gained more members, so mAYBE there's hope that the group will get bigger and better things done. Besides just....fucking dinner parties talking about racism 🙄😑🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
100000% hear you on needing more-and BETTER-teachers. I can only speak for the illustration department, but it's very widely known which teachers are more preferred than others. One of the professors I dislike has tenure and, despite being very vocal about how he doesn't want to teach anymore, will continue to teach until they literally force him out. A few other teachers get consistently bad reviews from students, and still manage to teach tons of classes. It's ridiculous.
But at least our department has a lot of options-I'd hate to be in major you're describing. I'm one of those students that thrives or dies depending on the teacher, and it would really kill my morale to be stuck with bottom tier professors.
I'm Chinese raised and still live in Austria and that was kinda my reality when I was in High School. I was the only POC in my whole class, and I was bullied by my headteacher and my classmates. I truly believe that it's worse when you are a kid and don't understand that it was racism. I've a cultural anthropology major and I'm very glad that I didn't come across with idiotic professors from my institute. However, sociology....boyy....the hypocrisy of this institute from University of Graz is ridiculous. I'm now applying for art school out of pure interest and I'm curious though of what it's like there. Black and Asian are definitely a minority here in Austria that tends to get mocked and overlooked.
I’m actually so interested in the conversation about cultural appropriation vs appreciation
Same, I'm in art school and we have yet to have this conversation.
@Kamil S not true.
I remember in my junior I had a class, about the 1st amendment and I will forever remember this moment where this white freshmen reading a segment of a passage and without hesitation he said the n-word. Then in one of the few times I actually was part of the conversation I was so against him saying the n-word. And the only time the black person was absent. It was so uncomfortable there were only few poc. Many of the white student were in the you can said the n-word while reading and I ended being so mad the whole class. I also felt the teacher being pro saying the word.
Jesus christ wtf?!
I can proudly say that I go to a fairly diverse school. I'm not saying we don't have our problems. University of Hartford Hartford Art School isn't perfect. My campus isn't perfect. but at the art school, we have some of the most diverse faculty. I've had 3 white people teach me out of the 3 years I've been here. For some reason, people don't see it as that diverse and go on tangents and rage wars why it isn't. If anything, the student body lacks males yet still calls it a male dominated school. Our statistics say otherwise.MAYBE. I'll have a guy in one of my studios. it's frustrating when people don't want to see the facts on a problem that really isn't there. We should embrace the diversity we have.
The fact that my university does the same thing as well. As long as its not anything physical, then it will go one investigation, but nothing will TRUELY happen.
(I'm white), I graduated from the animation department and all my professors were white. We even had an assignment to create a "fursona" based on our "spirit animal" and the dialogue about cultural appropriation was non-existent. In that same class with the spirit animals, we had to create haunted houses with ghost characters and my haunted house was a plantation mansion with enslaved people ghosts and she kept referring to the ghosts as "servants". The only time I ever had my own internal biases and privilege called into question was my social justice documentaries class (liberal arts elective) with one of my only black professors and it was one of the best classes I took. I graduated in 2022 and was a remote student in 2020. I wish I could say the education was useful but a year later and I'm still just full time Wal-mart cashier.
I hope they play this video at a full teacher meeting. Because this BS happens everywhere every day.
Thanks for look, I’m a black student looking to transfer next next year and this is the kind of stuff I’d like to know
What? An actual ending that is GOOD?! I hope they get their shit together even 10%
Fuck, I was debating on transferring there, thank you for this video❤️❤️❤️
Yikes I’m black and this was one of my top schools
As a black MassArt alumi who graduated with Biana. Despite it’s racism (can’t really avoid racism in college unless you go to a diverse school.) I recommend this school for Boston based students because it is the most affordable art school especially if you qualify for financial aid and scholarships. I commuted every year and saved soooooo much money. Also if you do work study work with CACP you’ll thank me later.
@@TiredofAds do you know anyone who did the art education major ? I’m stuck between massart or micas mat programs
@@kaylengriffin3234 why are you going to an art major?
@@drwhite7285 I’m doing art education not studio art
@@kaylengriffin3234 they you should've majored in education. That will make you more useful for any field not just art.
WAIT.
You’re not black or Hispanic?!?
You always looked to be about 50/50 to me but you said you’re not even a person of color.
(I personally think you might be but idk ashdhf maybe it would be fun to take one of those online dna tests)
Yeah the whole live chat blew up when I said that 😂😂 My mom is mixed white/black/middle eastern and my dad is white, making me at least 3/4 white. So while yes, I am /technically/ mixed and could /technically/ be considered a POC, my life experience has been that of a white woman. People see me first as white then maybe as mixed.
Basically, I call myself just white because I don't feel like I've really experienced what other poc go through. And it's annoying having to say "well, I'm mixed ish, but I'm mostly white so I consider myself white" all the time, so I just say I'm white and call it a day. If people want to know more (and they usually do), they can ask and we can have a conversation.
At the end of the day, I just don't want to overstep my boundaries or talk over anyone accidentally 🤷♀️
@@BianaBova When in America do people consider you to be white? LOL Your face looks like a black woman's face. Especially your nose!
Her mom isn’t white so she’s only half white.
My friend attended a swedish college in city called kristianstad that was prejudiced. She found it difficult to fit in because of her ethnicity. The preschool program was run by a woman who was authoritarian and aggressive towards her. The combination of feeling like an outsider due to her ethnicity and the harsh treatment from the program leader made it a challenging experience for her. She may have struggled to feel comfortable and safe in that environment. Because the college administration appeared unconcerned with the problem, my friend found it difficult to voice her worries to them. This left her feeling unsupported and powerless. This woman constantly spies on my friend. My friend feels uncomfortable and violated by this woman's behavior, and she wishes to confront her but fears the potential consequences of doing so. This woman hated students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and people of color and hated seeing them getting collage degree because she thought they were inferior. She tried to destroy my friend's future by making her take a hard knowledge test about the teaching profession and if she failed she will kick her out of college, my friend chose to take a break and start again at a different university. It is unfortunate that some people still hold such discriminatory beliefs in this day and age. This cruel woman set her up with a racist supervisor during her internship. The supervisor would constantly belittle her and make inappropriate comments about her race, which made my friend's experience even more unbearable. Despite all of this, my friend persevered and is now excelling in her new program at a different university.
I have been immigrant living in New England about 11 years. I have stories upon stories upon stories of racism and what's sad is that none of these stories surprise me and I honestly expected them to be much worse.
Great job on your first premiere Biana!
Thank youuuu!!! 💕
@@BianaBova 🤗×
I am sorry that you experienced this and I hope things get better for you and other people so things can get better :3
Not gunna lie... I always assumed you were a POC
I thought I was the only one
Me too. Didn't matter, but me too.
Especially being mixed myself, I prided myself on recognizing my mixed people lol
I thought she was black this whole time
@@morgan_____4290 Me too.
As a Mexican-Peruvian-Asian woman, I went to Massart a few years ago and don’t recall receiving any form of racist behavior against me. Of course, I don’t want to dismiss anyone else’s who may have experienced this but this just wasn’t the experience for me. I was also a transfer student at Massart and in comparison to the art school I went to prior, Massart was much more supportive in terms of their resources and staff.
Truthfully, the only negatives I can say about
Massart is that it was expensive and the cafeteria was not great but all things considered, you can absolutely get a solid education there.
Thank you, very much🙂
that cell phone thing is fucking disgusting
commenting for the algorithm!!
Thank you!! 😂😂
the heritability of intelligence and political views
Same in other schools…
Have you ever thought of taking up journalism or acting ????
As this is the first video you get when you search massart you should be careful. You’re so concerned in the beginning by talking about “amplifying my black experience” rather than worrying about the direction and attention you’re giving to a school that’s already a bad sign if you’re so excited to call out racism.
For 4 years, my "first week at massart" video was at the top of the massart search result and massart even put my video in one of their RUclips playlists. I've championed Massart in dozens of other videos on my channel, had my face featured all over massart promotional mailers, starred in a massart promotional video that's all over their website and social media, and a poster of my face is plastered on the outside of Tower for all of Boston to see. I've spoken positively about Massart for YEARS, so no, I'm not particularly worried about single handedly ruining their public image with this one video. It would be far more disingenuous, in my opinion, for me to not warn future students about racism at the school and to not offer my platform to current and former students so they can voice their own experiences and opinions. If massart truly has a problem with the video, they are more than welcome to email me.
…Bro.