{"id":15071,"date":"2025-01-30T19:16:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T19:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=15071"},"modified":"2025-01-30T19:16:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T19:16:29","slug":"in-open-contempt-confronting-white-supremacy-in-art-and-public-space-by-irvin-weathersby-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/30\/in-open-contempt-confronting-white-supremacy-in-art-and-public-space-by-irvin-weathersby-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space by Irvin Weathersby Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

c.2025, Viking\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/em>
\n$30.00\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>
\n256 pages<\/em><\/p>\n

By Terri Schlichenmeyer<\/em>
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

The issue appears to be permanent.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been happening for a long time. It doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019ll stop any time soon, either, and though you\u2019ve been able to work around it, you shouldn\u2019t have to. Some say it might be better some day but you\u2019re not holding your breath. As in the new book, In Open Contempt<\/em> by Irvin Weathersby Jr.,<\/strong> some things are too set in stone.<\/p>\n

Cemeteries are filled with them.<\/p>\n

So are parks, campuses, galleries, museums and courtyards where, for centuries, humans have left their carved and constructed monuments and artwork celebrating and commemorating our heroes. Those works may be so familiar, in fact, that you might barely notice them, although many of the monuments have lauded white supremacists.<\/p>\n

Says Weathersby, while some works have been removed in the recent past, many still stand, quietly, unobtrusively.<\/p>\n

In his hometown of New Orleans, for instance, there was great controversy over the removal of statues honoring Civil War figures. The Ninth Ward street that Weathersby lived on as a child honored a slaveholder. Schools he attended nearby were named after men who established racist laws and ways of life.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t know to question those things when he was a child, or even as a young man. When he enrolled at Morehouse, an HBCU, though, he \u201cbegan\u2026 unlearning…white supremacist culture.\u201d Stories from his great-grandmother helped him see white supremacy clearer.<\/p>\n

He found it in South Dakota, at Mt. Rushmore and at Wounded Knee, and he saw its effects at an Indigenous Writer\u2019s Festival where he learned of the Dakota 38.<\/p>\n

He sees it in art everywhere. He saw it once, when he was jailed overnight for a bike ticket he\u2019d already dealt with. White supremacy is there when he thinks about the innocent people killed by police, and he thinks about how close he came to being a policeman himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook,\u201d he says, \u201cwhite supremacy everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, he says, if we have the courage to actually see<\/em> it, to look hard and clear at it, \u201cthere exists a chance to heal and become empowered.\u201d<\/p>\n

You know how you can stare and stare at something, only to suddenly realize that there\u2019s something about it that\u2019s surprising, even shocking, right in front of you? That\u2019s the sense you\u2019ll get as you read In Open Contempt<\/em>, that smack-your-forehead, duh <\/em>feeling you get when your eyes are opened wide.<\/p>\n

And yet, like many of the things he discovered and points out, author Irvin Weathersby Jr. keeps a quiet presence in his book. His words are soft, but urgent. Gentle, but insistent. Firm, but prodding, leading, like having a presence sitting on your shoulder, whispering in your ear and urging you to see, to notice, demanding that you tell others, too.<\/p>\n

Readers who drive or walk past a monument to a historical figure every day will surely be spurred to regard it with fresh new eyes, after reading this book. You may never view artwork quite the same, either, because what you\u2019ll learn inside In Open Contempt<\/em> is monumental.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

c.2025, Viking\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 $30.00\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 256 pages By Terri Schlichenmeyer The Truth Contributor The issue appears to be permanent. It\u2019s been happening for a long time. It doesn\u2019t look like it\u2019ll stop any time soon, either, and though you\u2019ve been able […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[20],"class_list":["post-15071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15073,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15071\/revisions\/15073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15071"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=15071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}