WEBVTT

00:00:01.865 --> 00:00:05.402
[This talk contains graphic images.
Viewer discretion is advised.]

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:05.402 --> 00:00:07.270
Paul Rucker: I collect objects.

00:00:07.270 --> 00:00:12.903
I collect branding irons that were used
to mark slaves as property.

00:00:13.722 --> 00:00:16.682
I collect shackles for adults

00:00:17.746 --> 00:00:20.231
and restraints for adults

00:00:20.231 --> 00:00:24.657
as well as children.

00:00:25.669 --> 00:00:28.529
I collect lynching postcards.

00:00:28.529 --> 00:00:30.394
Yes, they depict lynchings.

00:00:30.394 --> 00:00:34.455
They also depict the massive crowds
that attended these lynchings,

00:00:34.455 --> 00:00:36.572
and they are postcards

00:00:36.572 --> 00:00:39.787
that were also used for correspondence.

00:00:40.611 --> 00:00:45.404
I collect pro-slavery books
that portray black people as criminals

00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:49.066
or as animals without souls.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:50.420 --> 00:00:53.158
I brought you something today.

00:00:55.956 --> 00:00:58.749
This is a ship's branding iron.

00:00:58.749 --> 00:01:03.122
It was used to mark slaves.

00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:05.252
Well, they actually were not slaves
when they were marked.

00:01:05.252 --> 00:01:06.947
They were in Africa.

00:01:06.947 --> 00:01:09.368
But they were marked with an "S"

00:01:09.368 --> 00:01:11.731
to designate that they
were going to be slaves

00:01:11.731 --> 00:01:13.468
when they were brought to the US

00:01:13.468 --> 00:01:16.195
and when they were brought to Europe.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:20.536 --> 00:01:24.121
Another object or image that captured
my imagination when I was younger

00:01:24.121 --> 00:01:25.477
was a Klan robe.

00:01:25.477 --> 00:01:28.954
Growing up in South Carolina, I would see
Ku Klux Klan rallies occasionally,

00:01:28.954 --> 00:01:31.814
actually more than occasionally,

00:01:31.814 --> 00:01:35.253
and those memories of those events
never really left my mind.

00:01:35.253 --> 00:01:39.170
And I didn't really do anything
with that imagery until 25 years later.

00:01:39.170 --> 00:01:41.935
A few years ago, I started
researching the Klan,

00:01:41.935 --> 00:01:44.250
the three distinct waves of the Klan,

00:01:44.250 --> 00:01:46.803
the second one in particular.

00:01:46.803 --> 00:01:51.393
The second wave of the Klan
had more than five million active members,

00:01:51.393 --> 00:01:54.608
which was five percent
of the population at the time,

00:01:55.024 --> 00:01:58.987
which was also the population
of New York City at the time.

00:01:58.987 --> 00:02:02.847
The Klan robe factory in the Buckhead
neighborhood of Georgia was so busy

00:02:02.847 --> 00:02:05.960
it became a 24-hour factory
to keep up with orders.

00:02:06.535 --> 00:02:12.173
They kept 20,000 robes on hand at all time
to keep up with the demand.

00:02:12.618 --> 00:02:16.511
As a collector of artifacts and
as an artist, I really wanted a Klan robe

00:02:16.511 --> 00:02:17.975
to be part of my collection,

00:02:17.975 --> 00:02:21.526
because artifacts
and objects tell stories,

00:02:21.526 --> 00:02:24.473
but I really couldn't find one
that was really good quality.

00:02:25.549 --> 00:02:26.997
What is a black man to do in America

00:02:26.997 --> 00:02:30.001
when he can't find the quality
of Klan robe that he's looking for?

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:30.001 --> 00:02:31.754
(Laughter)

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:33.312 --> 00:02:35.578
So I had no other choice.

00:02:35.578 --> 00:02:40.321
I decided I was going to make
the best quality Klan robes in America.

00:02:41.076 --> 00:02:45.599
These are not your traditional Klan robes
you would see at any KKK rally.

00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:47.641
I used kente cloth,

00:02:47.641 --> 00:02:50.158
I used camouflage,

00:02:50.158 --> 00:02:54.009
spandex, burlap, silks,
satins, and different patterns.

00:02:55.422 --> 00:02:56.926
I make them for different age groups.
I make them for young kids

00:02:56.926 --> 00:03:00.905
as well as toddlers.

00:03:00.905 --> 00:03:03.255
I even made one for an infant.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:07.792 --> 00:03:09.838
After making so many robes,

00:03:09.838 --> 00:03:13.822
I realized that the policies
the Klan had in place

00:03:13.822 --> 00:03:16.336
or wanted to have in place
a hundred years ago

00:03:16.336 --> 00:03:18.669
are in place today.

00:03:18.669 --> 00:03:22.742
We have segregated schools,
neighborhoods, workplaces,

00:03:23.941 --> 00:03:28.906
and it's not the people wearing hoods
that are keeping these policies in place.

00:03:29.264 --> 00:03:32.196
My work is about
the long-term impact of slavery.

00:03:32.196 --> 00:03:35.667
We're not just dealing with
the residue of systemic racism.

00:03:35.667 --> 00:03:38.291
It's the basis of every
single thing we do.

00:03:38.573 --> 00:03:42.569
Again we have intentionally
segregated neighborhoods,

00:03:42.569 --> 00:03:44.462
workplaces, and schools.

00:03:44.462 --> 00:03:46.116
We have voter suppression.

00:03:46.116 --> 00:03:51.657
We have disproportionate representation
of minorities incarcerated.

00:03:51.657 --> 00:03:53.578
We have environmental racism.
We have police brutality.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:53.578 --> 00:04:00.253
I brought you a few things today.

00:04:01.695 --> 00:04:04.460
The stealth aspect of racism

00:04:04.460 --> 00:04:07.728
is part of its power.

00:04:07.728 --> 00:04:09.524
When you're discriminated against,

00:04:09.524 --> 00:04:12.346
you can't always prove
you're being discriminated against.

00:04:13.754 --> 00:04:16.603
Racism has the power to hide,

00:04:16.603 --> 00:04:19.453
and when it hides, it's kept safe

00:04:19.453 --> 00:04:20.917
because it blends in.

00:04:22.640 --> 00:04:25.909
I created this robe to illustrate that.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:26.919 --> 00:04:31.196
The basis of capitalism
in America is slavery.

00:04:34.020 --> 00:04:37.069
Slaves were the capital in capitalism.

00:04:38.274 --> 00:04:43.088
The first Grand Wizard in 1868,
Nathan Bedford Forrest,

00:04:43.088 --> 00:04:46.334
was a Confederate soldier
and a millionaire slave trader.

00:04:54.821 --> 00:04:59.053
The wealth that was created
from chattel slavery --

00:04:59.053 --> 00:05:02.268
that's slaves as property --
would boggle the mind.

00:05:02.268 --> 00:05:06.721
Cotton sales alone in 1860
equalled 200 million dollars.

00:05:06.721 --> 00:05:10.715
That would equal
five billion dollars today.

00:05:11.567 --> 00:05:16.660
A lot of that wealth can be seen today
through generational wealth.

00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:19.392
Oh, I forgot the other crops as well.

00:05:19.392 --> 00:05:22.250
You have indigo, rice, and tobacco.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:26.992 --> 00:05:32.014
In 2015, I made one robe a week
for the entire year.

00:05:32.014 --> 00:05:34.412
After making 75 robes, I had an epiphany.

00:05:34.412 --> 00:05:40.042
I have a realization that
white supremacy is there,

00:05:40.042 --> 00:05:43.547
but the biggest force
of white supremacy is not the KKK,

00:05:43.547 --> 00:05:47.527
it's the normalization of systemic racism.

00:05:47.527 --> 00:05:49.922
There was something else I realized.

00:05:49.922 --> 00:05:52.433
The robes had no more power
over me at all,

00:05:52.433 --> 00:05:57.551
but if we as a people collectively

00:05:57.551 --> 00:06:00.001
look at these objects --

00:06:00.001 --> 00:06:01.829
branding irons, shackles, robes --

00:06:01.829 --> 00:06:04.746
and realize that they
are part of our history,

00:06:04.746 --> 00:06:10.084
we can find a way to where they have
no more power over us.

00:06:10.342 --> 00:06:14.341
If we look at systemic racism
and acknowledge

00:06:14.341 --> 00:06:20.104
that it's sown into the very fabric
of who we are as a country,

00:06:20.104 --> 00:06:24.299
then we can actually do something
about the intentional segregation

00:06:24.299 --> 00:06:25.710
in our schools,

00:06:25.710 --> 00:06:28.882
neighborhoods and workplaces.

00:06:28.882 --> 00:06:31.555
But then and only then
can we actually address

00:06:31.555 --> 00:06:34.237
and confront this legacy of slavery

00:06:34.237 --> 00:06:37.070
and dismantle this ugly legacy of slavery.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:37.070 --> 00:06:39.285
Thank you very much.

NOTE Paragraph

00:06:39.285 --> 00:06:42.450
(Applause)