Before:
I agree that our art throughout history is hurtful and discriminating but is amending and changing our art throughout history the right thing to do? Some paintings throughout our history give a bad impression of African Americans and other minorities. For example, in Titus Kaphar’s TED Talk called “Can art amend history” he explains a story of when he took his kids to the Natural History Museum in New York, “ I took them to the Natural History Museum. I had my two sons with me, Sabian and Dabith. And we go into the front entrance of the museum, and there’s that amazing sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt out there. You guys know which one I’m talking about. Teddy Roosevelt is sitting there with one hand on the horse, bold, strong, sleeves rolled up. I don’t know if he’s bare-chested, but it kind of feels like it. And on the left-hand side of him is a Native American walking. And on the right-hand side of him is an African American walking. And as we’re moving up the stairs, getting closer to the sculpture, my oldest son, who’s nine, says, “Dad, how come he gets to ride, and they have to walk?” This story from Titus really shocked me, because in my personal experience I have never thought about art as discriminating, before listening to this TED Talk, but art throughout our history is. The artist of the sculpture outside the Natural History Museum wanted to portray that Teddy Roosevelt was in a place of higher power and class compared to the Native American and the African-American and to discriminate and show their inferiority, just like how most of the world saw Native Americans and African Americans during this time period. This sculpture is a great “window” to the past because it shows how discriminating Europeans were to African Americans and Native Americans during that time period.
After:
I agree that our art throughout history is hurtful and discriminating to many minorities, like African Americans. In Titus Kaphar’s TED Talk called “Can art amend history” he explains a story of when he took his two kids, Sabian and Dabith to the Natural History Museum in New York. Here his son asked a very interesting question “Dad, how come he gets to ride and they have to walk?” this question was referring to the sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt at the front entrance of the museum. At the side of Teddy Roosevelt on his horse, is a African American on his right and a Native American on his left. While Teddy Roosevelt was on his horse the other two figures were walking. This story from Titus really shocked me, because in my personal experience I have never thought about art as discriminating, before listening to this TED Talk, but art throughout our history is. The artist of the sculpture outside the Natural History Museum wanted to portray that Teddy Roosevelt was in a place of higher power and class compared to the Native American and the African-American and to discriminate and show their inferiority, just like how most of the world saw Native Americans and African Americans during this time period. This sculpture is a great “window” to the past because it shows how discriminating Europeans were to African Americans and Native Americans during that time period.
Before:
A freelance writer Rhys Southan wrote in his article “Is Art a Waste of Time?” of the views and ideas of the extreme group called Effective Altruism. In his article, he uses a quote from Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 Oscar acceptance speech for best director which stated “I want to thank anyone who spends a part of their day creating. I don’t care if it’s a book, fold, a painting, a dance, a piece of theater, a piece of music. Anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experiences with us. I think this world would be unlivable without art” This quote is an excellent example of how art is a “window” to the sole because anyone who spends part of their day sharing their experiences has to allow the audience or viewer into their sole and world. Southan explains that EA wants to reduce suffering and increase lifespan and happiness of people getting high paying jobs just to give ten percent of their earnings to effective charities. The EA believes artists are not doing everything they can for the suffering of humans because they do not always make a lot of money that they can give to charity and they are just creating distractions from the suffering of people all over the world. In “Is Art a Waste of Time” Southan utilizes another quote by Peter Singer and australian moral philosopher which stated “Suppose you saw a child drowning in a pond; would you jump in and rescue her, even if you hadn’t pushed in? Even if it meant ruining your clothes? It would be highly controversial to say “no”- and yet most of us manage to ignore those dying of poverty and preventable disease all over the world”. This was a real shock to me because this quote is so powerful and it is portraying that are is just a distraction to the real suffering in the world. Also EA points out that “individuals works of art would have been negligible compared with, say, deworming 1,000 children”. In my opinion both these statements were false because without pictures, movies, paintings, book and more pieces of art people with high paying jobs would not know what they are donating to and would less likely donate. If you saw a starving child really thin and malnourished would you be more likely to donate than not knowing what cause you are helping to. Also if a person wrote a book about how many people are helping suffering people in Africa, wouldn’t you want to help too? This demonstrates that art can be used as a “window” to far off places that you cannot go to.
After:
Rhys Southan wrote in his article “Is Art a Waste of Time?” the views and ideas of the extreme group called Effective Altruism. In his article, he uses a quote from Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 Oscar acceptance speech for best director which stated “I want to thank anyone who spends a part of their day creating. I don’t care if it’s a book, fold, a painting, a dance, a piece of theater, a piece of music. Anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experiences with us. I think this world would be unlivable without art” This quote is an excellent example of how art is a “window” to the soul because anyone who spends part of their day sharing their experiences has to allow the audience or viewer into their soul and world. The EA believes artists are not doing everything they can for the suffering of humans because they do not always make a lot of money that they can give to charity and they are just creating distractions from the suffering of people all over the world. In “Is Art a Waste of Time” Southan utilizes another quote by Peter Singer and australian moral philosopher which stated “Suppose you saw a child drowning in a pond; would you jump in and rescue her, even if you hadn’t pushed in? Even if it meant ruining your clothes? It would be highly controversial to say “no”- and yet most of us manage to ignore those dying of poverty and preventable disease all over the world”. This was a real shock to me because this quote is so powerful and it is. Also EA points out that “individuals works of art would have been negligible compared with, say, deworming 1,000 children”. In my opinion both these statements were false because people with high paying jobs would not know what they are donating to and would less likely donate if they did not see pictures, movies, paintings, books and more pieces of art. If you saw a starving child really thin and malnourished would you be more likely to donate than not knowing what cause you are helping to. Also if a person wrote a book about how many people are helping suffering people in Africa, wouldn’t you want to help too? This demonstrates that art can be used as a “window” to far off places that you cannot go to.
Changes:
In the first paragraph I adjusted the long quote that I had in the middle of my paragraph. I got some great feedback from my peers which explained that the long quote was distracting, so instead of having a large quote I summarized the quote in my own words. In addition, to changing the quote I did a few local edits that my peers suggested about a few sentences. For my second paragraph I took out a few sentence that did not make sense or that were repetitive and unnecessary.
