from the chapter:

THE DILEMMA OF TEACHING “CRITICAL WHITENESS STUDIES” – HOW TO TRANSFER KNOWLEDGE ON WHITENESS AS WHITE SCHOLARS

Daniela Gronold and Linda Lund Pedersen

Published in the book 'Teaching with the Third Wave New Feminists’ Explorations of Teaching and Institutional Contexts'

http://www.erg.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.39112.1320403013!/Teaching_With_The_Third_Wave.pdf

The “alienbus” is part of an artistic project of the Colombian painter Carlos Alberto Reyes Florez, in which he uses the alien as a figurative-metaphor for the experience of being the “other”, the “stranger” in the framework of a white capitalist/colonialist and globalised world which is represented by the airplane. The project offers many entrance points to reflect upon a feminist stance on Critical Whiteness Studies. The green of the alien tells of the visibility of the “other”, always being exposed to the gazes of those whose hegemonic position allows them to consider themselves as “normal” and not demarcated by “otherness”.  Furthermore, the green colour is an abstraction of the notion of skin colour. It rather shows the artificial construction behind “othering” than it determines a particular skin colour or suggests that the green stands exclusively for skin colour. The shape and bodily feature is not emphasising a particular gender of the “other”. The “stranger” can be seen as female or male, child or adult, hetero-, bi- or homosexual, white or black or brown or yellow. The example here also shows the “alienation” of the “other” by being outside the airplane and therefore in a very vulnerable position, whereas people inside the plane can be considered as “safe” or at least in case of emergency they will be provided subsidies which can increase their chance for survival. Through the shelter of the plane, the people are highly homogenised in the terms of being insiders – though divided by they abilities to pay for extra services. The shelter of the plane protects these people and they are invisible in the painting. On the contrary the person outside is the most visible figure in the painting since she/he/it is excluded from taking up a seat among the other passengers. From inside, passengers are hardly able to see the excluded. Many of them would not even know of the person outside or be aware of the difficult and dangerous situation the “stranger” is in. Some may know of the existence of the “alien” and consider this “blind passenger” as a parasite who illegally takes advantage of “their” system, whereas some may feel sorry for the inconvenient situation of the “other” or even try to do something to help the person outside.

© carlos reyes florez 2006 - 2015