WARNING: THIS REPORT CONTAINS OBSCENE LANGUAGE AND RACIST IMAGERY. PARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED.
The National Art Museum of South Africa in Cape Town will feature an exhibition titled “Fuck White People” created by Dean Hutton, who’s white himself, sparking an outrage.
According to the description of the artwork in the museum, Hutton said the exhibition was meant to provoke white people. “White people made racism and made sure it is deeply embedded in our social systems, laws, economies, institutions and individuals. So this provocation is here to make you feel that ‘white pain’.”
It continued: “Earlier this year, I photographed a student Zama Mthunzi wearing a T-shirt with the words ‘fuck white people’ smeared in black paint. He was threatened with expulsion and a case at the human rights commission. None of the complaints said anything about the front of the T-shirt which read ‘black pain is shit’.”
The artist also posted a picture on Twitter posing in front of ‘Fuck White People’ sign in the National Art Gallery:
The white artist told News24 that the installation is about opening the eyes of white people to indoctrination.
“I am sure that many, and in particular the young people in your communities, have begun to wake from the indoctrination of white supremacy and are ready to learn to fuck the white in them too,” he said.
Hutton also added that doesn’t believe reverse racism exists. “I would like to remind the good doctor that the reverse of racism is love, and celebration of difference. ‘Reverse Racism’ is a fantasy of white people who are keen to experience the kinds of oppression that they have used against indigenous people of this country.”
The exhibition has sparked an uproar from Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) political party in South Africa, calling it “inflammatory” and urged the museum to scrap it.
“The responsible officials at the museum will have to account as to whether they would hold an exhibition with a reversed racial message,” FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said in a statement.
“In times where racial relations are extremely sensitive, and where people who are guilty of making racist comments are severely punished by courts, the exhibition is short-sighted, and it is experienced by many people as inflammatory,” he added.
Groenewald called for the exhibition to be removed. “It is offensive and causes friction and should be removed immediately,” the party leader said.
The artist fired back at allegations of racism, saying “I would like to remind the [FF Plus party leader] that the reverse of racism is love, and celebration of difference. ‘Reverse Racism’ is a fantasy of white people who are keen to experience the kinds of oppression that they have used against indigenous people of this country.”
His website fuckwhitepeople.org has also doubled-down on the allegations, writing:
If you are white you’re probably feeling some type of way right now. I’m not sorry for that. White people have been having a lot of feelings lately about “reverse racism” as if it’s a thing. White people made racism, and made sure it is deeply embedded in our social systems, law, economy, institutions and individuals. So this provocation is here to make you feel that “white pain”. Breathe deeply through it. I’m here to destabilize all of our white spaces.