The Justified Ancients of Mummu Society

30 black students were kicked out of a Donald Trump rally for standing silently

Sacrifice by V V Brown

“This imbalanced exposure has existed for centuries and creates a psychological coping mechanism, the “cultural mask” – a term I have used for my video for Sacrifice. It represents a dual consciousness: a strange pendulum between wearing a mask and showing your true identity. This was a concept created by Frantz Fanon in his 1952 book Black Skin, White Masks. Fanon was a black activist and doctor of sociology who spoke about the layering of identities that a black person takes on to cope.

As a black person you almost automatically learn to use this this mask in order to survive in a society predominantly catering to a white audience. It shows in different forms – from extremes of self-hate, where all things black are rejected, to coping strategies such as not wearing braids to a job interview in fear of being deemed “too ethnic”. These compromising adaptation strategies help us feel included, avoiding the fear that if one was to show blackness in its entirety there will be alienation and confusion from one’s counterparts.”

Psychedelic Portraits, Dennis Auburn

“Border Line,” a series shot by Dennis Auburn for Issue 6 of Atwood Magazine, playfully explores shape and color and their appearance on the clean slate of human form.