History of Oppression: Dress ing for Rich, White, Majority

ARTS & CULTURE

September 23, 2022 Established 1874 Volume 152, Number 3

History of Oppression: Dressing for Rich White Majority

Malcolm Bamba

Arts & Culture Editor

Dressing for success goes beyond colloquialism — it’s a term of deep cultural significance. Watershed moments for students historically underrepresented in academic institutions are underscored by the legacy of knowing that success is how you choose to show up.

Oberlin’s relationship with Black excellence started in 1835, with Black students being admitted. Scholars and artists were afforded the opportunity to pursue

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Oberlin in 1965 to receive an honorary degree and speak at Commencement.

Photo courtesy of Oberlin College Archives academia at what was then known as the Oberlin Collegiate Institute. Black and Brown folks who were allowed to occupy previously segregated spaces of research and creative discipline were now faced with the question: what does it mean to show up Black when Blackness has been seen as the enemy of excellence?

In Oberlin’s class photo of 1947, student Carl T. Rowan is seated among his fellow classmates. He is the single Black face in a cohort of white men who represent an expectation of upholding the appropriate aesthetic, which is evident in the sea of blazers and buttons which remove any trace of a cultural presentation that might subvert the visual legacy of white supremacy he’s now been allowed admission into.

Fashion, in this respect, is not purely the choice of repurposing a blazer or wearing a different color of high-top Nike — it’s a means of assimilation into the dominant culture. The barrier to entry for Black and Brown folks has been held upon the ability to uphold a level of visual uniformity within whiteness.

Systematic policies around the appropriateness of ethnic hair and body types associated with women and men of color have been socially normalized within universities and workplace environments, as well as within film and television. The erasure of cultural fashions has led to clothing being used as a tool for blending into oppressive spaces — which means dressing the part.

College fourth-year Saint Franqui spent most of his childhood living with his mom and grandmother in majority-Latino Section 8 housing.

Class photos spanning Oberlin’s over-200-year history illustrate Blackness in the context of Presbyterian whiteness. Photo courtesy of Oberlin College Archives

“Growing up, a common phrase was thrown around in my household: ‘Puedes ser pobre, pero no sucio,’ which translates to, ‘You can be poor, but not dirty,’” Franqui said. “Showing up to school in clothing with rips, tears, or holes would signal to people that you were poor, which gave them a reason to treat you badly because of it.”

Oberlin’s relationship with fashion has always been one of obvious importance and timelessness. There is no space at this institution that has not seen the power of clothing used as a form of counterculture and protest. However, this fashion forwardness contrasts the privileges of those afforded the financial flexibility to move in and out of a “poor” aesthetic.

“Since being at Oberlin, I’ve noticed an interesting pattern of students of color being well dressed and put together often,” Franqui said. “In contrast, wealthy and white students rave about their ratty thrift-store finds and go to class in stained, dirty, and tattered clothes.”

The legacy of Black and Brown students at institutions such as Oberlin has been one of proving the value of occupancy. A part of this unspoken exchange has asked for the families of these individuals to teach their children how to dress for the success they’ve been unilaterally denied. This process of looking the part is also paramount in understanding how culture can act as a superseding force in weaponizing presentation for upward mobility.

Oberlin’s institutional history of excellence is a credit to its legacy of Black students, who illustrated the ability to succeed beyond the stereotypes of racialized aesthetics — and look great while doing it.

Basement of Hales Home to Third-Year Studio Art Majors

Leela Miller

Senior Staff Writer

Juliana Gaspar

Arts & Culture Editor

Studio Art majors enrolled in Oberlin’s Advanced 2D Projects course are excited to have art-making spaces all to themselves in the basement of Hales Gymnasium. College thirdyears Clea Gunn and Martina Taylor show off the original work on their walls and the beautiful clutter that blankets their in-use workspaces. The walls of Taylor’s space, where all their pieces are pinned, show off their experimentation with textile art. Taylor’s pieces range from smaller explorations of colors and patterns to larger pieces focused on human facial expressions. One of Taylor’s pieces experiments with fashion garments, specifically cargo shorts decorated with the alphabet. A range of materials, from maps to hammers, can be seen throughout Taylor’s space, each important to their creative process. Gunn also uses a range of materials, such as fabric and ceramic, in their work — however, they focus mostly on print. Their pieces are also displayed on the walls. Both artists use vibrant colors, and the formerly blank walls come alive as each student makes the space their own.

Kurt Rosenwinkel and his band play at the Cat in the Cream. Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor Eric Revis plucks away at the bass. Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Kurt Rosenwinkel improvises on his guitar. Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Maeve Woltring

This past Tuesday, a brigade of College students, Jazz Studies department members, and Oberlin community members could be found grooving in the dimly lit confines of the jam-packed Cat in the Cream. Thanks to the efforts of the Oberlin Jazz Society, the Cat’s stage was host to the iconic Kurt Rosenwinkel and his star-studded quartet. Their electric, experimental melodies sent a thrill of awe across the enthralled, head-bobbing crowd. Rosenwinkel returned some of the sheer admiration coming from within his audience — about midway through the set, he offered props to the concert’s student facilitators. He noted that he had not expected his Oberlin debut to be solely student-facilitated and produced.

“It was just such a wonderful scene to be involved [in],” Rosenwinkel said. “Deep in the students’ layer, hanging out with everybody and being a part of the generation that you guys are coming up in, to be able to visit and have a great time with everybody was absolutely wonderful.”

This kind of recognition coming from Rosenwinkel is no small thing. Often credited as the preeminent jazz guitarist of his generation, Rosenwinkel could be heard dispensing casual and succinct slices of wisdom to a winding single-file line of student musicians hoping for the chance to get in a quick chat with him after the show. But the aftershow fervor was not the only setting in which Rosenwinkel offered up his expertise; earlier that day, he taught a masterclass in which Conservatory Jazz Studies majors and jazz aficionados could observe his creative process.

“I think every day there’s lessons to be learned,” Rosenwinkel said. “And I think today … I saw people learning things about how to mix and how to produce. I think it’s a wonderful opportunity that the kids have to do this, because this is professional stuff.”

Conservatory third-year and Oberlin Jazz Society Board Member Noah Nelson not only attended Rosenwinkel’s masterclass and concert, he also buzzed around behind the scenes for a full nine hours on Tuesday, installing and uninstalling equipment, situating gear, and hanging out with Rosenwinkel and his quartet. As a transfer student and recent electee to the position of Gear and Setup Manager on the OJS board, Nelson was thrown into a process that was already in full swing. There were some hiccups along the way; the piano at the Cat in the Cream had not been played all summer, and most of the OJS members working to put on the concert were new to the board and unaware that they needed to put in a request to get the piano tuned ahead of time. The quartet’s pianist, Aaron Parks, ended up playing the set on an electric Rhodes keyboard.

“It was 7 p.m., no piano tuner or anybody with any knowhow as far as tuning a piano goes … and so Aaron Parks ended up playing the Rhodes,” Nelson said. “I thought it was pretty cool. That’s a really beautiful-sounding instrument, and he’s a beautiful-sounding musician; they just wanted to do their job and do it well.”

For Nelson, some of the most indispensable knowledge to be extracted from the whole experience came from the originality that Rosenwinkel brought to the performance and masterclass.

“Kurt’s visit here, his masterclass, and his concert were really important because he’s been, for 30 years, kind of at the forefront of modern jazz movements,” Nelson said. “He didn’t play the standards, he didn’t play the usual repertoire. He played all original music in an original styling … a lot of the grooves that were used were kind of derived from hip hop and soul.”

Nelson also gave appreciated Rosenwinkel’s use of improvisation.

“I’m really into free music, free improvisation, free jazz,” Nelson said. “He was just talking about how you can learn so much about yourself through free improvisation … he kind of got philosophical with it and was drawing this direct line between musical improvisation and life improvisation, which I thought was kind of beautiful and not something I had thought tremendously about myself.”

Even though the day was taxing, Nelson left the show feeling inspired and went straight into an after-hours jam session with a handful of his Conservatory peers.The Rosenwinkel Quartet’s esteemed drummer, Gregory Hutchinson, believes that the excitement the show elicited in Nelson and his peers is exactly the goal.

“I remember a long time ago, this was me in this same position,” Hutchinson said. “So it’s always good to help the students out, to evolve, to get better, to think about leaving school, you know? I think that’s the thing. Once you’re in school and you see some people come through who are doing what you want to do, it gives you inspiration, too.”