Artschoolscammer
Where is your divergent - how do you manifest your wholeness?
Where is your divergent Saying NO as much as possible and standing in my truth is my divergent. Being a disruptor and anarchist - a gatekeeper and a “trouble maker”. I manifest my wholeness by loving continuously and being romantic.
What are microaggressions within your community that keep you all from pulling together? How do we move past them?
Microaggressions anything birthed from the ideals of consumption is a struggle that my community faces and deserves to gain sovereignty from. We will move past them organized / silently.
If white supremacy & capitalism no longer made you suffer - how would you perceive your existence?
I would be.
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Marq Bentley
Where is your divergent - how do you manifest your wholeness?
I think wholeness comes with different elements of self discovery. Researching yourself is one of life’s greatest educational experiences outside of an institution. A lot people are afraid of revisiting trauma because we often are made to feel as if our emotions get in the way of our productivity to the world. On the other hand, some people are afraid to hear that they themselves may have caused harm or trauma in fear of facing shame or ridicule. What they don’t tell you is that self discovery requires you to learn to be gentle with yourself and those around you. It’s not an overnight thing. It’s not a decade long thing. It’s a lifetime continuous stream on of self actualization and realization that gives you the keys to unlock your most enlightened sense of self. For me, Inner child, Shadow, and Light work are practices that help me reach these new plateaus of self. By listening to my inner child, I am able to hear the needs of the things I was deprived of, and find tangible way to provide them now. My shadow work allows me to look at some of the pain I’ve caused and where it stems from, while my light work gives me a guide for where my enlightenment can take me. This work allows me to take actionable steps at finding wholeness within me.
What are micro-aggressions within your community that keep you all from pulling together? How do we move past them?
I believe that a part of our downfall as a community is a lack of discretion, and an increase in entitlement. We now live in a world where everyone believes their opinions matter, or that they're more enlightened than the masses, or that they have the right to be morality police. While accountability is important, we often times forget that we are not all dealt equal hands in the game of life. We have a habit of judging situations based upon our set experience, with taking into consideration the mentality, influence, or the environment of those we judge. It’s nearly impossible for us to form unified values as a culture when all taking the same test, but read different books. The only way to combat that is by finding understanding. Even if you don’t agree with what’s being present, finding understanding in experiences that are outside of your own is still an act of love.
If white supremacy & capitalism no longer made you suffer - how would you perceive your existence?
Is this a trick question? I can’t even begin to answer that question because so many ideals, beliefs, and constructs are rooted in white supremacy that’s if it’s not affecting me, it’s still affecting someone else. So with that said, the fight wouldn’t stop. The healing of the conditioning from white supremacy would need to be done because white supremacy is not a me problem. It’s a world issue. If I’m able to overcome that and capitalism as an individual, it would be my duty to use my experience to avenge those still in battle.
A Divergent from the Magnetism of Whiteness: Dealing with the Hungry Ghost
Where is your divergent - how do you manifest your wholeness?
What are microaggressions within your community that keep you all from pulling together? How do we move past them?
If white supremacy & capitalism no longer made you suffer - how would you perceive your existence?
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Ajani Russell
Where is your divergent - how do you manifest your wholeness?
My entity is a composite of many conflicting things. Many of us are. To find peace within myself I had to let all of these components just be. To let exist without judging those parts allows them to grow and flourish together instead of suffering the stagnancy of dissonance. I often find myself at the threshold of many doors at the same time. Exploring many things simultaneously, allowing me to bring meaning and gain insight on the motivations and intentions I encounter through experience. tell stories in different mediums . In resonance with the versatility of human experience I tell these stories through different mediums. My wholeness and value is being a bridge of sorts as a translator- using visual language as a vehicle for communicating the ineffable- feelings, emotions, the intangible.
What are micro-aggressions within your community that keep you all from pulling together? How do we move past them?
While it is not necessarily a micro aggression, I believe fear of isolation prevents alignment in our community. It drives us to become defensive instead of inquisitive, we reject the unknown instead of exploring it. Our society, trapped in an endless loop of hierarchical structure, perpetuates exclusivity. This combined with pride and stubbornness, obstructs unification. Conflicts will arise before opposing parties attempt compromise. When we are unorganized in terms of desires and communication it allows those few individuals with power to maintain it.
If white supremacy & capitalism no longer made you suffer - how would you perceive your existence?
I would not have to perceive my existence if white supremacy and capitalism no longer existed. As of now, pain, trauma and my desires to be away from those and similar afflictions have catalyzed my movements through life. If these things that plague my mind disappeared I would be free to build the world I want to live in rather than trying to make a minute network of joy in a broken one.
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Mikey Burns
Where is your divergent - how do you manifest your wholeness?
For me, It’s taking a step back to reflect on things going on within myself and around me. Learning to let things go, move forward and move to the beat of my own drum without worry.
What are micro-aggressions within your community that keep you all from pulling together? How do we move past them?
I would say that one thing would be judgement! Especially being within the LGBTQIA community and being a black woman. In order to move past them, people need to fully accept that everyone is different, everyone’s situation is different and we are all not cut from the same cloth.
If white supremacy & capitalism no longer made you suffer - how would you perceive your existence?
...It’s hard to answer this question and only think about myself. To answer this as simply as possible, I would perceive my existence OR better yet, OUR existence to be completely free.
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Kesiena Onosigho
Where is your divergent - how do you manifest your wholeness?
My wholeness is manifested in my mind. I am able to connect fully with spirit through meditation. It’s manifested by entering within. I envision myself in places only my mind can imagine past, present, & future, sometime separately, sometimes congruently. Fragments shifting into portals…how the african diaspora….us together create a whole, in our unique ways, in our differences, create the whole. My wholeness manifests in my artistic practice. and engagement with others, in community and in love. Collectively my continual curiosity leads me to awareness and towards wholeness. And through abstraction I am able to find clarity.
What are micro-aggressions within your community that keep you all from pulling together? How do we move past them?
Micro-aggressions like Respectability politics hold me back. As a Black Woman others are constantly trying to describe what my liberation means and how I am supposed to act, to be accepted as a "respectable being". Moving past them includes dialogue, openness and acceptance and faith. But ultimately, Radical action and radical imagination and our expansive creativity that we inherently possess, is how we move past them.
If white supremacy & capitalism no longer made you suffer - how would you perceive your existence?
infinite choice…the able to live collectively and in cohesion with nature, ever expanding and constantly evolving.
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Inez The Sun
Where is your divergent - how do you manifest your wholeness?
What are micro-aggressions within your community that keep you all from pulling together? How do we move past them?
If white supremacy & capitalism no longer made you suffer - how would you perceive your existence?
Black joy and communion are how I believe I diverge from whiteness. Living with purpose, connecting and sharing with those that look like me, and facing life everyday are all ways that I live beyond the burdens placed on me by whiteness and systemic racism. The pictures I share symbolize black connections, black pride, black families, black friendship, black joy, black love, and black perseverance.
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Wokie Massaquoi
Where is your divergent - how do you manifest your wholeness?
My divergent is in my ability to be vulnerable even when the world around me wants me to be “strong”. It is my ability to keep loving myself even when others have stopped loving me or when I forget how to love myself. It is in the way I say yes to life even when life seems to go in the opposite direction of my plans or I am rejected. I manifest wholeness by listening to myself and being in a constant state of gratitude to the source, my ancestors, my loved ones, and to myself. Granting myself grace to unlearn patterns, behaviors and habits that have not served me and time to relearn new ones, so I can remain whole. Showing up for myself, others, life even when I feel like I want to die; resiliency. Creating and boundaries for myself and practicing “no” to keep my sanity and safety. Supporting my loved ones and friends by loving them for who they are and not who I think they should be. Exercising patience when I’m anxious is another way I manifest wholeness. Being like water when I feel like fire and vice versa.
What are micro-aggressions within your community that keep you all from pulling together? How do we move past them?
Micro-aggressions in my community that keep me from pulling together is the idea that black women are strong, so we do not feel any pain or I cannot be vulnerable because then I am perceived as weak. Black women are saviors of the world so we have to rescue, educate, or coddle our aggressors to make them feel comfortable. “You’re pretty for a dark skin girl!” or “I don’t even date dark skin girls, but you pretty.”, as if that is a compliment to make me feel better about myself being a dark skinned American Sierra Leonian or that I am superior to other dark skin women based on my looks. “Is that your real hair?” Why is that any of your business and do you ask white passing people with fine hair that question? “You are so well spoken,” as if having an education is an anomaly. Being in mostly white spaces and being ignored simply because I look different and being told “I wasn’t seen” when I am the only black face in the room. “Why are you so aggressive?” or “Why are you arguing?” when I am simply being assertive in my delivery. “I don’t see color,” as if my existence as a dark skinned American Sierra Leonian is not revolutionary or political in itself. We move past these micro-aggressions by standing in our truth, not being passive, and giving micro-aggressions back.
If white supremacy & capitalism no longer made you suffer - how would you perceive your existence?
If white supremacy and capitalism no longer made me suffer, I would perceive my being as safe and more free. Safe to be my whole self in white spaces without micro-aggressions, micro-insults, and micro-invalidations. Safe to express my sexuality without judgement. Safe from white guilt. I can rest without feeling guilty. I won’t use money as a way to define my being or my success.
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