Name: The symbols of systemic racism — and how to take away their power | Paul Rucker
Uploaded: 2020-07-03T04:18:11.000Z
Duration: 7 min 2 s
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[This talk contains graphic images Viewer discretion is advised]

Relative clauses (Restrictive vs. nonrestrictive)

I collect branding irons that were used to mark slaves as property.

They also depict the massive crowds that attended these lynchings,

I collect proslavery books that portray black people as criminals

Well, they actually were not slaves when they were marked.

to designate that they were going to be slaves

Another object or image that captured my imagination when I was younger

Growing up in South Carolina, I would see Ku Klux Klan rallies occasionally,

and the memories of those events never really left my mind.

And I didn't really do anything with that imagery until 25 years later.

A few years ago, I started researching the Klan,

The second wave of the Klan had more than five million active members,

which was five percent of the population at the time,

which was also the population of New York City at the time.

The Klan robe factory in the Buckhead neighborhood of Georgia was so busy

it became a 24-hour factory to keep up with orders.

They kept 20,000 robes on hand at all time to keep up with the demand.

As a collector of artifacts and as an artist,

I really wanted a Klan robe to be part of my collection,

because artifacts and objects tell stories,

but I really couldn't find one that was really good quality.

when he can't find the quality Klan robe that he's looking for?

I decided I was going to make the best quality Klan robes in America.

These are not your traditional Klan robes you would see at any KKK rally.

spandex, burlap, silks, satins and different patterns.

I make them for different age groups; I make them for young kids

I realized that the policies the Klan had in place

or wanted to have in place a hundred years ago

We have segregated schools, neighborhoods, workplaces,

and it's not the people wearing hoods that are keeping these policies in place.

My work is about the long-term impact of slavery.

We're not just dealing with the residue of systemic racism.

It's the basis of every single thing we do.

Again we have intentionally segregated neighborhoods,

We have disproportionate representation of minorities incarcerated.

We have environmental racism. We have police brutality.

you can't always prove you're being discriminated against.

The basis of capitalism in America is slavery.

The first Grand Wizard in 1868, Nathan Bedford Forrest,

was a Confederate soldier and a millionaire slave trader.

The wealth that was created from chattel slavery --

that's slaves as property -- would boggle the mind.

Cotton sales alone in 1860 equalled 200 million dollars.

That would equal five billion dollars today.

A lot of that wealth can be seen today through generational wealth.

In 2015, I made one robe a week for the entire year.

After making 75 robes, I had an epiphany.

I have a realization that white supremacy is there,

but the biggest force of white supremacy is not the KKK,

it's the normalization of systemic racism.

The robes had no more power over me at all.

and realize that they are part of our history,

we can find a way to where they have no more power over us.

If we look at systemic racism and acknowledge

Subtitles ListPlay Video

The symbols of systemic racism — and how to take away their power | Paul Rucker

aspect

realize

distinct

demand