09/18/2016
(What is this??): Dysfunctionalware is a set of china dishware, each dish illustrated by local artists with images of advantages people seen as "white" may unconsciously experience on a daily basis without necessarily considering why, how things came to be this way, or how the same situations might go for others who are not seen as "white."
The set is being used for a series of dinners where people who identify as or sometimes experience passing as white can help each other explore what "whiteness" may encompass, allow, and provide, as well as ways that white supremacist culture harms us. Guests sit and eat a meal, bite by bite uncovering the artists' images, and discuss with those sitting nearby what they see their plates depicting and how it relates to their own life and history.
Up to 10 guests attend each dinner event. The dinners take place at various donated venues around the city, where hosting organizations and small businesses can invite their members, staff, friends, or volunteers to share a meal and support one another in antiracism.
The fine china is meant as a symbol of white privilege, often inherited along family lines unearned and unchosen, and put up in a cabinet in an unfrequented room. Though it’s a massive set in a huge piece of furniture, its owner largely forgets it unless another person or an unusual situation overtly draws their attention to it.
The title, a ceramics reference, invokes white culture’s discomfort with and avoidance of talking about race, which unfortunately ends up propagating injustice even when that's the opposite of what's intended.
Guests may also explore ways they can work to root out passively acquired white supremacist programming, support efforts toward racial equity in established systems, or support work outside of or liberation from unjust systems, if that is their interest.
The events are designed so people who identify as or experience passing as white can explore their experience of race and ethnicity without friends/colleagues of color being put in a position of helping or teaching or ambassador-ing or holding space while white people who may or may not have much experience talking about race try out their sea legs, but people of color with a desire to attend, participate, or give input, please get in touch!
