AN INTERVIEW WITH: UNIMUKE J AGADA.
UNIMUKE J AGADA, ILLUSTRATOR, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS (ALUMNI). What does the notion of the body politić look like now? To me, the body politic looks like groups of historically oppressed demographics mobilizing and taking back control of their bodies, as well the space they occupy. This can take the form of collectives, safe-spaces, and online communities, just to name a few. What embodies ‘blackness in the white landscape’, and what does this look like to you? ‘Blackness in the white landscape’ immediately brings to mind ‘awareness’. Awareness of one’s own blackness, awareness of being watch, being judged and awareness of how the one must act in order to operate in this landscape. This manifests in countless ways, from self repression to self expression. What are the differences in gender related issues / topics / relationships? I assume this means the difference “between” gender and race related issues. Gender is a much more multifaceted issue. It exists in a separate column, so to speak. When it comes to gender, you are not only dealing the potential pressure from a colonial oppressor, you are also dealing with the oppression from within your own tribe. This oppressive pressure is magnified based on race and gender identity so that if you are a women of color, or a trans person of color, you exist at a nexus and societal conflict, and it may seem like you have no tribe to identify with at all. What are the differences between the British and American microcosms in the discussion of race? 54 // BODY POLITIĆ.
The white population of Britain, I believe, holds the notion that is very much detached from issues of race, namely because the nation’s past transgressions were neither as domestic, nor as widely and commonly evoked as the Americas’. I would assume this leads to a more insidious form of racial transgression -- one that boils just below the surface. The cloak and dagger of the postracial myth. Alternatively, in America, the issue of race always lingers in the air. We are all aware of its weight, and those who try to convince themselves of its dissolution are simply attempting to assuage their own guilt. America is more like a bubbling, spilling cauldron of race discussion, spoken and unspoken, hateful and progressive. How are issues of body politics manifested, visualised and framed in the everyday? Countless ways -- the disproportionately black impoverished that often line urban areas as white workers avoid their gaze. The constant stream of news stories in which police remind us that that blacks are not, in fact, in control of our bodies. The testimonies of women who fear that their control will be taken from them in the form of passive aggression, harassment, and legislation. The disturbingly short life expectancy of trans women. These are all sign of the ongoing dialogue between the individual and the nation state. But body politics are present too in the taking back of control, the carving of space -- the defiant push back. How do issues of racial body politics affect all people of colour? Across the globe, the darker you are, the worse you are treated by your society
