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[This talk contains graphic images
Viewer discretion is advised]

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I collect objects.

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

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I collect shackles for adults

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and restraints for adults

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as well as children.

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I collect lynching postcards.

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Yes, they depict lynchings.

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They also depict the massive crowds
that attended these lynchings,

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and they are postcards

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that were also used for correspondence.

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I collect proslavery books
that portray black people as criminals

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or as animals without souls.

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I brought you something today.

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This is a ship's branding iron.

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It was used to mark slaves.

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

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They were in Africa.

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But they were marked with an "S"

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to designate that they
were going to be slaves

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when they were brought to the US

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and when they were brought to Europe.

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

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was a Klan robe.

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

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actually more than occasionally,

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

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

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A few years ago,
I started researching the Klan,

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the three distinct waves of the Klan,

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the second one in particular.

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

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which was five percent
of the population at the time,

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

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

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

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

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As a collector of artifacts
and as an artist,

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

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because artifacts
and objects tell stories,

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

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What is a black man to do in America

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

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(Laughter)

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So I had no other choice.

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

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

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I used kente cloth,

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I used camouflage,

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spandex, burlap, silks,
satins and different patterns.

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

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as well as toddlers.

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I even made one for an infant.

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After making so many robes,

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I realized that the policies
the Klan had in place

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or wanted to have in place
a hundred years ago

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are in place today.

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We have segregated schools,
neighborhoods, workplaces,

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

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

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

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

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Again we have intentionally
segregated neighborhoods,

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workplaces and schools.

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We have voter suppression.

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We have disproportionate representation
of minorities incarcerated.

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We have environmental racism.
We have police brutality.

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I brought you a few things today.

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The stealth aspect of racism

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is part of its power.

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When you're discriminated against,

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

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Racism has the power to hide,

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and when it hides, it's kept safe

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because it blends in.

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I created this robe to illustrate that.

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The basis of capitalism
in America is slavery.

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Slaves were the capital in capitalism.

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The first Grand Wizard in 1868,
Nathan Bedford Forrest,

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was a Confederate soldier
and a millionaire slave trader.

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The wealth that was created
from chattel slavery --

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

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Cotton sales alone in 1860
equalled 200 million dollars.

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That would equal
five billion dollars today.

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

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Oh, I forgot the other crops as well.

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You have indigo, rice and tobacco.

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

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After making 75 robes, I had an epiphany.

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I have a realization
that white supremacy is there,

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

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it's the normalization of systemic racism.

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There was something else I realized.

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The robes had no more power
over me at all.

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But if we as a people collectively

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look at these objects --

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branding irons, shackles, robes --

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and realize that they
are part of our history,

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

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If we look at systemic racism
and acknowledge

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that it's sown into the very fabric
of who we are as a country,

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then we can actually do something
about the intentional segregation

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in our schools,
neighborhoods and workplaces.

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But then and only then
can we actually address

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and confront this legacy of slavery

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and dismantle this ugly legacy of slavery.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)