The Brown Ceiling and Possible Futures

with Arshia Haq, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, Latipa, and Mario Ybarra Jr. Moderated by Mario Ontiveros. 

The artists gathered around the table today take up the artist’s role in relation to institutions; and how they are shaped by these institutions and they work to re-shape institutions. The talk about alternative pedagogical structures, and what is lost and gained as they operate within or outside of different kinds of spaces.

This episode was recorded in December 2019. One of the ways this conversation connects to the present moment is through the discussion of the Brown Ceiling, a term introduced by Mario Ybarra, Jr.. The group talks about how representation of Black and Brown people in the media gets internalized and needs to be dismantled in order to break through the ceiling.

This gets pushed further when Latipa highlights the ways that imperialist dynamics are still underlying even well-intentioned discourses, like that of human rights and social justice. A re-orientation of these discourses, interrogating the violence of whiteness and white supremacy, is a key to breaking out of the cycles of oppression. She asks, “How we can think about possible futures that don't reproduce the violence is of the present?”

Learn more about the artists and X-TRA here.