STORYTELLING
The overall goal of Pay Attention! is making racial justice real. One way we do this is by enabling people to speak their truth on the page or to the camera — people who do racial justice work and people who have experienced racial injustice.
Truth-telling and attentive listening by others to the painful truths of those wronged by racism are grounding principles in how we begin to make racial justice real.
“THE WAY TO RIGHT WRONGS IS TO TURN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH UPON THEM.”
~ Ida B. Wells
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF
RACISM IN MINNESOTA
DISCUSSIONS WITH DONALD WALKER & KENNEDY SIMPSON (ARTISTS)
Created by Antonio Richardson
Founder | Filmmaker, Nubulan Films
DONALD WALKER
In this video, nationally-recognized Twin Cities artist Donald Walker recounts his artistic transition to becoming a social justice advocate, as he’s flanked by his eye-popping collection of posters and paintings with images of Harriet Tubman, Emmett Till, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King, among many others, with their biting, truth-telling messages.
As a young cartoon artist, Donald caught the eye of his art teacher who arranged a visit to the graphics promotion department of the Pioneer Press to get pointers on his work. That group of artists was so impressed with Donald’s work — “This guy’s got skill!” — that they wanted him to intern with their team. A job interview was arranged with the Press’s publisher who acted “weirdly” upon seeing Donald, hardly saying a word to him, although a job application was filled-out. After weeks went by, finally the teacher called the Press and was told that Donald never showed up for the interview — “a straight-up racist lie,” says Donald.
Ironically, later in his career, Donald would become the first African American artist to work at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Stinging as that early experience was, the affirmation he received from the Pioneer Press’s graphics staff for his outstanding skill — in contrast to the deceitful rejection by the publisher because of skin color — were life-lessons for Donald. An artist must be a truth-teller, front and center. “That’s how we learn, that’s how we get better, that’s what America needs to get better — the truth!”
KENNEDY SIMPSON
Kennedy Simpson Designs | Artist and Graphic Designer
Kennedy Simpson is currently a Twin Cities artist and graphic designer. In this video, she reflects back on a third-grade experience shortly after her family moved to a small Minnesota town where she was the only child of color in her school. Kennedy overheard one child say to another child, about her: “Nah, she’s not cute, she’s a nigger.” This shocking comment formed the blueprint for Kennedy's school years…feeling invisible and isolated, not smart or taken seriously. “A piece of gum on the bottom of someone else’s shoe,” she recalls. Over her school years, Kennedy wrote letters to the principal challenging the school to honor diversity and not tolerate racial slurs. Now, as an adult artist and activist, Kennedy shares her pride in that little girl who felt so small and anxious at the time.
JIM STEWART
Late Macalester College Professor of History and
Founder of the Pay Attention! Project
Jim Stewart describes his unlikely entry point into antiracist work in this rustic yet informative interview with a student from Colgate University as part of the National Abolitionist Hall of Fame and Museum’s Black History Matters series, February 2021.
As a Division I basketball player at Dartmouth College, Jim Stewart played with and against white players only. Upon graduation in the early 1960s, he returned home to Shaker Heights, Ohio to engage in voter registration efforts during the civil rights era. The only place for him to maintain his basketball skills was at a downtown rec center, populated by Black players who played a very different type of basketball – one that taught him how it felt to be “othered.” This experience, along with the Cleveland riots that occurred after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was life-changing for Jim, propelling the question: “Where does all this anger and separation come from?”
That question undergirded Jim’s long academic career in teaching and writing about racial injustice and is at the heart of his major post-retirement project – a remarkable video lecture series entitled Historical Tonic for Fragile White Folks. Dr. Stewart explains that embedded in this set of short videos are answers to his question regarding the origin of anger and separation between the races. This interview and the video series contain an important message to white people: Pay attention! Become informed! Show up! Because, according to Jim: “When white people show up, change happens. When white people don’t show up, nothing changes.”
Watch the interview below. In addition, visit About Us for more information about Jim Stewart.