A Discussion on Black Lives Matter | Rhea Bailey | Episode 797

Rhea Bailey | Episode 797

Rhea Bailey works out of her home studio in Oakland, California where she designs and makes all of her pieces by hand. Rhea is drawn to modern, functional pieces that also exude a grounding quality. She loves exposing the raw texture of clay with varying layers of glaze. Rhea makes most of her pieces on a potters wheel, but also hand builds when the mood strikes. Rhea belief is that food tastes better when eaten out of a handmade bowl or plate.

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When you think of black lives matter do you see it as a movement, a slogan, or a rallying cry?

I definitely see it as a movement for sure. I see it as an invitation to recognize..

I love how you reframed your answer as an invitation.

Yes, it has always been, right? To recognize the systemic injustice that has unfortunately been a foundation of black life for the last 400 years. Since 1619 when we were first brought to this country and all the ways that institutional racism has manifested to this day. And an invitation really to recognize that and to do better.

Do you feel the invitation in the last couple of years has been accepted?

It was when it was cool. You know, I think like anything else the newness wears off. Right? Like it doesn’t hit. As black folks we live this daily. This is our experience of being a person of color in this country and it’s just not the daily day to day experience of other folks, of white folks, of folks who aren’t necessarily…what’s the word…who aren’t having to face similar challenges in daily life. And so I think for awhile it was really in vogue, right, to be on the side of black folks, people of color, and to do “the work” along side of us and then folks kind of went back to their lives because it doesn’t affect them on a daily basis. There’s a reason why many of the movement organizations are led by folks of color. They are led by black folks because this is, although I have some challenges with fact that we are the folks who are trying to…we are fighting for our own justice. We are the ones who are feeling the brunt of the injustice but we are also the onus is on us to fix it which seems unfair.

It does. It seems completely unfair. You are saying, You are causing the problem but we are here to fix the problem that you caused.

Yeah, and we don’t even have the power necessary to do that.

You said the movement is no longer in vogue but it feels like social media has made an impact that keeps at least the sentiment being brought into the future a little bit more effectively than if it was just a news story. Do you think that’s accurate?

I think that’s part of it. I think there is messaging and then there’s action. And so I think the social media piece goes a long way in terms of messaging but I think that’s a very small piece of the puzzle and a very small piece of the solution, if you will. It’s very easy to write a hashtag or say black lives matter. It takes very little effort. It takes a lot more effort to actually figure out what to do and not even necessarily on a grand scale, even on a personal level. How will I change how I walk in the world as a white person or as a person in the dominate culture, if you will. What will I do differently? On a micro level and a macro level. And so yes, I think social media definitely but one tool in one slice of a very large pie.

You mentioned it is not as popular. Does that mean that the need for change has declined?

No. The need for change? No. (laughter) The need for change is paramount. It’s huge. The need has not decreased at all. I think the plight of black folks particularly in our society is very much the same as it has been. We are continuing the struggle, the journey towards equity, towards liberation. All those things. The journey continues. And there’s a lot of folks who are working really hard, of all colors to make that happen but there’s a lot, a lot of work to be done.

What is one thing that is positive that came out of the movement?

For me personally or just in general?

For you personally.

I think just bringing it back to the pottery piece that was probably the most tangible glimmers of light, if you will, in that particular instance of uprising. I had more attention paid to my work and I was able to leverage that attention to push myself to a different level, creatively as well as financially in that instance being able to get a kiln and round out my studio so I am appreciative of that definitely.

How has the last year made you concerned with the raising of your children?

The way that I think about raising my children, black children in society, didn’t change as a result of the last year and a half, circumstances by any means. I think there are things as parents of black children have to think about that are different than parents of white children in terms of our children’s safety, in terms of their opportunity to live a life that is free and innocent as they possibly can, while also holding the fact that we have to educate them about what is actually happening in our society in order to keep them safe. And so again it is that dichotomy that I talked about earlier, of raising children with all the things we want to raise children with, with a freedom of spirit and opportunity to discover and to learn in this sort of…the only word I can think of is free, unadulterated access to everything. Right? While also knowing there is going to be a time when they are not with me, there’s going to be a time when they are on their own and there are lessons and knowledge that they are going to need to have that white children don’t need to have in order to keep themselves safe. So how do you teach them those lessons without instilling the fear. Right? Without making them paranoid and fearful of other people, of police, of you know. Yet, if you don’t teach them those things, is it irresponsible to not prepare them. So yeah, these are things that we have thought about since before we had children and it’s a delicate line that we walk daily to try to create an opportunity for them to be as fully self-expressed in all the ways that you would want any child to be, while also making sure that they understand who they are and what that means.