The Zebra is dead — cultural fauna appropriation!
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Green links to the article itself, and it’s a doozy.
When we talk about diversity in design and architecture, there’s often a call for decolonizing the space. Everyone is fully aware that the landscape of the field needs to change, but what about rebuilding the foundation? In 2021, Aaron Betsky wrote a piece for Architect Magazine about teaching architecture through a critical race theory lens. “We cannot turn away from the fact that many of the structures we hold up as examples, like Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, were instruments of oppression, rape, and forced labor, and that even what we think of as neutral models, in whatever style, were the built affirmation of wealth built on violence,” he writes. “What we also must recognize is that the forms we think of as ‘good’ architecture, from the layout of our houses and offices to the white columns that festoon classical buildings, cement the culture of whiteness, based on European models, in stone, concrete, wood, glass, and steel.”
… While you might think that this concept doesn’t apply to life at home, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Although our homes serve as safe spaces for us to retreat from the chaos of the world, interiors are a direct reflection of our points of view. I have previously touched on this issue when I unpacked how the cottagecore trend signaled a shift toward a mentality that I described as “colonizercore”—the commodification of this whitewashed aesthetic has opened the door for romanticizing colonialism while erasing the historical narrative of BIPOC communities in America.
Last year, Jacquelyn Ogorchukwu published an essay on the website for her brand Making the Body a Home about a new concept she describes as “interior race theory.” As she outlines in the proposal, we can creatively resist structures of domination within the home by challenging ourselves to think about the ways in which politics are embedded into the built environment and encouraging more “racial wellness” within the spaces that we create—especially with regards to the objects that we curate.
The idea for interior race theory stemmed from Jacquelyn’s experiences as a Black woman in spaces dominated by whiteness and the many instances where she found herself asking, … “How are factors such as race or gender intersecting with the design space, and how can we utilize those ways of thinking to create spaces that are resisting harmful, cultural [biases]?”
… In an ideal world, all spaces would function as places for “restoration, remembrance, and resistance,” as Jacquelyn explains it. …
“It’s this idea that we can stimulate racial wellness in our homes through objects that we’re interacting with and use in our daily lives, such as furniture, decor, or homeware,” she explains. “What’s really interesting about it is it can be helpful for communities of color who are obviously experiencing racism and need spaces to restore themselves, but it could also be helpful for white folks who benefit from racism and need spaces to unlearn [that].”
Jacquelyn attributes this ongoing absence of cultural competency to a lack of sensitivity, pointing out how some people still decorate their homes with racist objects such as mammy jars, colonial busts, war memorabilia, and Confederate flags. The intent behind the practice of interior race theory is to radicalize the disciplines of design and architecture by challenging people to think more critically about the home as an extension of self and how we represent ourselves. “What you fill your home with can also condition you to hold [certain] values,” Jacquelyn explains. For instance, “The use of the color white has been weaponized to symbolize purity…. There’s a lot of ways that this theory can deconstruct conservative values that really align with whiteness.”
… Most designers, she believes, aren’t contemplating the nuances of what wellness looks like from the point of view of “folks who are either experiencing oppression or benefiting from oppression.” In the process of designing a space, she wants more people to think about how their home might influence the behaviors of others and consider what values they are trying to instill in the people that inhabit or visit this domestic environment. Jacquelyn notes how something as simple as the style of a dining table can enforce certain ideas within a space—a circular table could symbolize more community-oriented values, while rectangular shapes might represent patriarchal ideals (i.e. the man sits at the head).
