“Cookout” is a photograph that addresses the realities of our racist past and current experience as Americans. Cookout is a term used by black people primarily as a substitute for “Picnic” which historically was a gathering of white Americans who “picked a nig-ger”, hanged and burned them in celebration, dismembered and ate parts of them as a group. This is language we still use to date and continues to inflict trauma from a time past (although there have been several hangings of black people in recent years. (As recently as 11/2021).

The piece addresses language while simultaneously addressing the minimization, fatigue and resistance to accepting, reconciling and owning an equitable share of the black trauma experience. Statements like “That was in the past, why can’t we move on” and “I didn’t own slaves” are inspiration for the piece as well as the ubiquitous photos found on the internet that reinforce the undervaluation of black lives. When institutions like museums can show thousands of photos, post cards, and images of black people being hanged, burned and dismembered from an unfiltered past, I thought it important to create an image that could visually articulate why “We” can’t move past it.

When you look at a mirror, things are reversed. This image is a mirror. What’s white is Black and whats Black is white. When people look at this staged image, although they know it’s a fictitious event, my hope is they feel appalled and motivated to promote the change we so desperately need. It seems the only way to promote this change is by centering whiteness in the work. “You don’t know how deep things cut until it cuts you.”

No one cared about gay rights until it affected their families. No one took COVID seriously until it affected them or a loved one. Black people were branded as criminals during the crack epidemic while white people are portrayed as victims of the disease of addiction during the heroin epidemic. By reversing the roles in the photograph and imagining a reality where black people inflicted this type of violence on whites in the past creates a scenario where our outrage, grievances and perspective could be taken more seriously. The irony is even after slavery, Jim crow, indentured servitude, lynching’s and being murdered by police, Black people by and large still adopt, support and actively practice non-violence as a method of resolution.