NYC’s Nate Hill takes Harlem with his new piece The White Ambassador. What’s with the white face, you ask? Earlier this year, Hill has set up a WhiteSmellBot on Twitter that is now retweeting about 80 “white people smell like” stereotypes a day. As a biracial performance artist, he’s headed out to confront these bytes of cyber racism. See the video for some tense discourse.
Hill explains:
Black people are racist too. They need to deal with that. All white people don’t stink. Wake up and smell the damp, white hair. I have some in a plastic bag. Then sign my petition.
So he walked the streets with a clipboard, a bag of white person’s hair for sampling and an umbrella, presumably to protect his delicate ahem ahem complexion. He chanted “We are white. We smell alright” and loudly proclaimed that unlike the stereotypes curated by his Twitter bot, white people do not smell like Cheetos or hot dog water or other things more offending to the senses/your feelings, white people.
This video gets particularly tense when Nate is forced to “break character” and explain his project and his biracial background to the passerby who seem, at first, unamused with the performance. The discourse transpires next is more interesting than oh so many things you hear at Chelsea gallery openings.
When’s the next one?
(Video and Photos: Tod Seelie)
You are doing a great social experiment. There is racism between races period. I don't think it's as rampant as is portrayed in the media or we wouldn't have our first half black half white president. I didn't vote for Obama based on his color but based on what he stood for. I'm white and was pretty excited about Cain, until all the allegations surfaced. Now I have to decipher if they are real or contrived. I am a Republican, I judge peolple by the content of their character and not by their skin color…..that's silly!
Someone is going to hurt this dude. He really needs to do this in a predominantly white neighbourhood so white folks can see how sickening can get the stinging point of his "satire"
Correction:Someone is going to hurt this dude. He really needs to do this in a predominantly white neighbourhood so white folks can see how sickening imitating another race can be. Perhaps they can get the stinging point of his "satire"