Discrimination is a social issue which has been generating increasing concern ever since its appearance. The birth of discrimination as a concept and widespread attitude could be considered to be the first years after the first human societies were structured. Since a society is structured upon specific categorizations and divisions of social groups, differentiation between social groups is the physical outcome. Therefore interpersonal and social relationships start being developed under the existing differentiations generating issues of prejudice and discrimination, causing increasing concern on how it could be better dealt with so that less troubling situations and incidents are caused within the social set environments. As expected, art has been influenced by the problems experienced due to discrimination issues and has adopted various ways on behalf of its representatives to show its opposition towards discrimination. Two art pieces which look into the issue of discrimination and are presented in this essay is the book ‘The Second Sex; by Simone De Beauvoir which was written in 1949 and the painting ‘God Bless America’ which was painted in 1964 by Faith Ringgold.
Both works depict racism. The book depicts the racism that women face as being considered ‘the Other’ which is defined by their being opposed to men. It may be one of nature’s principles for definitions to be given through their being opposed to some existing ones. But this is not such a case. Women are looked down. They are seen as the inferior human kind. They are seen as the weakest part, as the object. Men are the ones who create, who innovate, and who make the world go round. But women are considered to be the ones who wait in the dark of the backstage without doing anything else than wait for men to save them. So women are discriminated against by men.
Faith Ringgold on the other hand is an African American woman who paints ‘God Bless America’ to depict the discrimination that women who are African Americans experience. The painting was painted in the Civil Rights Movement which took place in 1964 and it was derived by the white discrimination and prejudice against African American women. The painting shows the American flag imprisoned. The white woman is a racist. She is the reason why African American women are deprived of their right to vote. So women turn out to be prisoners of their own nature and sex.
In conclusion both art pieces depict racism and discrimination. In the literary work the racism is the one felt and performed against women in general by their opposite sex whereas the painting looks into the inner racism which can be caused within the members of the same group. It may be argued that this kind of racism is even worse since it is born within the borders of a closely bonded group.
Works Cited
Beauvoir, Simone ‘The Second Sex;, Vintage (1989)
Ringgold, Faith ‘God Bless America’, painting (1964)
