Nat'l Day of Panhandling for Reparations: Your Questions, My Answers
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Thursday 13th September 2007 | 05:32 pm
Where: Portland, Oregon, USA
Feeling: 
rejuvenated
Listening to: Mary J Blige•Real Love
100 Americans Panhandle for Reparations
An interview with damali ayo, creator of National Day of Panhandling for Reparations
September 2007
Since I announced the National Day of Panhandling for Reparations, I’ve received some wonderful feedback, including some concerns and questions. I asked Heather Day to gather together these questions and put them to me. I hope this helps the conversation continue and deepen. Ultimately, of course, I hope it encourages more of you to join the performance and find out for yourself exactly what it is like. Experience is always the best road to understanding. – damali ayo
Heather Day: damali, you’ve been asked a lot of tough questions about your upcoming participatory performance “National Day of Panhandling for Reparations.” What do you make of people’s reactions?
damali ayo: I’m all about starting dialogue. So I’m glad people are talking to each other, though it’s not quite the caliber of conversation it could be. People often give art a quick glance, then react react react. We live in a sound-bite society and art just doesn’t fit into that mindset. Art asks you to slow down. That is one of my favorite things about this work especially. It literally asks people to slow down, to stop and take it in as they walk by on the street.
Even though I provide a lot of information and explanation on the web pages, people still don’t take the time to read, watch or listen. We live in a society where people are taught to react by lashing out instead of by learning. I wish that would change in general. I don’t mind criticism, but I wish our society was more knowledge-driven rather than reactionary. This interview is yet another attempt to engage people beyond cursory reactions. I hope people will spend time with it, and be encouraged to go back to the web page and read, watch and listen. If you are for or against the work, then write a letter to your local paper or favorite news organization, instead of writing me. Let’s broaden the conversation. This is a dialogue for our nation, not a few select folks.
HD: Let’s start with one of the most frequent issues raised: Isn’t it degrading for black people to beg on the street for reparations? Doesn’t this just play into stereotypes that blacks are lazy and looking for a handout?
From the performance statement: African Americans have tried several means to recoup reparations for the enslavement of our relatives, with little progress. Panhandling shows the last resort of African Americans after our government has ignored or denied all previous requests for reparations. Panhandling is an immediate means of exacting reparations. We offer ordinary citizens the opportunity to pay the reparations our government has denied us, or to walk past our presence on the street and continue to ignore our collective history.
da: The performance exaggerates how EASY it is to pay reparations, showing our fellow citizens and government that they are failing at such a simple task. We’re not asking for a meal or a job, we are asking for reparations. Reparations are not a handout. That’s an important point. It doesn’t equate reparations with a handout- it pairs the two to show the absurdity of equating them.
The performance exaggerates the begging feeling that African Americans might have as we ask and re-ask for reparations from our government. How many ways and times do we have to ask? No one should have to beg for what is rightfully owed to them. Many black people have told me that they either feel desperate, degraded and devalued in the reparations conversation or they just want to give up on it entirely. This performance shows our level of frustration in a clear tangible way to the American public.
The fact that some people want us not to beg is part of the performance itself. I hope that citizens all over the country see people panhandling for reparations and do all they can to stop us by encouraging our government to offer the reparations that African Americans are due.
HD: How do you define reparations?
da: Reparations is such a complicated concept.
Economic reparations payments are to repay the economic investment made by enslaved African American people. This is the “we never got paid and are owed money” argument. Reparations are also made as a symbolic gesture to acknowledge slavery as a moral and legal wrong. Without reparations, the United States government is officially stating that enslaving Africans and African Americans was not, in fact, a “wrong.”
This performance simply opens a conversation by positioning a dollar as a metaphoric symbol –almost like a vote of support for reparations. I of course don’t propose the “dollar in a can” approach as a solution.
HD: Shouldn’t the money go to something that promotes more long term or institutional change?
da: As an artist, my job is to get the conversation flowing so that the policy makers can pick things up with a lot of momentum and support. I don’t write the policy, I leave that to the experts. Personally, I find that organizations too quickly fall to corruption and mismanagement. I think the best reparations plan would include individual payments as well as institutional meta-change like the kind N’COBRA (National Coalition Of Blacks for Reparations in America) proposes. Their plan includes things like college loan forgiveness and free education for African Americans because of the 200 years during slavery that we were denied and held back from educational access.
HD: One person suggested that “[A performance like this] takes credibility away from any real discussion surrounding reparations, which in my opinion should be about creating/changing institutions to address inequalities experienced by African Americans.” How do you respond to this concern?
da: I don’t see how adding more conversation about reparations takes credibility away from a “real” discussion of the issue. It is a devaluing of art to say that this isn’t real or a part of that conversation. In fact, this performance makes it more real than just about anything else. The performance removes reparations from a theoretical realm and takes to the street. How can we learn if people do or don’t support reparations if we don’t’ ask them? I’m finding that many white people actually do support it and are willing to put their money behind their support. That’s definitely adding something to the conversation that hasn’t been added yet. In addition, Day of Panhandling for Reparations is a multi-racial performance. People of all races will take to the streets to ask for reparations for African Americans. This is incredibly powerful.
HD: Does this mock or trivialize the reparations struggle?
da: No. I don’t mock or trivialize racism or any struggle. I have dedicated my life to fighting oppression and increasing education and understanding. I’ve been teaching about racism actively since I was four years old. I’m not exaggerating. Even so, people question my dedication. Some people even question my blackness. This is a sad result of racism in this country. I’ve put in years of commitment to this and I stand by all I have done and all I do.
I was surprised to find out that one of the most prominent organizations advocating for reparations hasn’t collected even one name of white people who support reparations. I collected payments from lots of white people. I can name at least ten white people who support reparations right now. Where are their voices? This performance is adding some very important elements to this conversation. In addition, reparations has become such a hypothetical discussion, this performance makes the issue very concrete, very real. It allows people to weigh in with one of their most potent voting tools- their money.
HD: What about the risk of the performance leading people to misinterpret the reparations cause and therefore hinder rather than help the movement?
da: From my web page: “Social movements succeed when multiple channels are involved. This performance takes the conversation about reparations to the street, adding a grassroots element to the already present academic and legislative conversations. Citizens have both the chance to pay and accept reparations, showing our representatives that citizens do indeed want to make reparations payments and how easily it can be accomplished. In addition citizens are encouraged to send their receipts to the IRS as proof that reparations is a process supported by the general public.”
HD: Will this just piss people off and cause them to further disengage?
da: I hope that people don’t disengage. We should not be afraid of disagreement. It is a critical part of democracy. When people are “pissed off” as you say, they tend to voice this which deepens their engagement and spreads the conversation to others.
HD: In the YouTube CNN debate Barack Obama didn’t say that he openly supported reparations, instead he focused on improving our schools as reparations. You support Obama for president. How do you feel about his stance on reparations?
da: I grew up in Washington, DC in a very political household. My parents still watch a minimum of three news reports a week. I TiVo the news nightly so I don’t miss an issue. I’m no political neophyte. Reparations is an incredibly divisive issue. Not only are some white people vehemently against it, but some black people are against reparations as well. Most people don’t even understand it. Anytime I bring it up in a substantial way, any thing else I’ve said in the last hour is forgotten and reparations becomes the focus. I know from experience that actively supporting reparations would simply be death to any viable political campaign. We haven’t had a nationwide conversation about it yet. That’s why I’m taking this performance national. Hopefully then we can unite as a citizenry and ask all of our leaders to implement a reparations program.
Obama has a real point when he says he wants to help the schools as a part of reparations. Black people were denied education for hundreds of years because of slavery and so repairing that educational lag is a very important part of reparations. I believe that reparations needs to be created on both individual and institutional levels.
Let me take a moment and say that Barack Obama is a strong candidate and a strong black role model. It plagues me deeply that many African Americans plan to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton. This is terrible. She’s such a dishonest person and an admittedly dishonest candidate. She stated clearly that she would deceive the American people about her policies. Additionally there is a remarkable amount of revisionist memory when it comes to the Clintons. We don’t seem to remember that it was Bill Clinton’s empty promises to black people that drove so many of us away from the democratic party. This and caused a gap to open that allowed for the election of George Bush. I can name many black people, leaders even, who voted for Bush or Nader because of Clinton. Why anyone would trust Hillary Clinton with their vote boggles my mind. Her presidency would be a disaster.
HD: Is this performance satirical? Is it Symbolic or Practical? Activism or Art?
da: Yes. Absolutely. All of the above. Art does it all, that’s why I chose art to pursue instead of something like political office or academics.
One blogger said “The way I was reading it was as a satire, very “dark” humor to bring attention to the fact that we have been silenced in a lot of realms so lets bring attention to this by occupying public space and making people confront that which is often rendered invisible.”
This is a great reading of the work. Though there are many ways to see it, which is why I often resist over-explaining my art. I believe that the audience interpretation is a critical part of the work itself and I don’t want to take away anyone’s opportunity to interpret it by telling then “what it means.” Every work of art has a different meaning to each person who experiences it. This particular performance, in its concept, is satire but not parody. rent-a-negro.com and How to Rent a Negro were parody. This work is more symbolic and satirical- a biting commentary on the state of the reparations debate.
It disappoints me when people refer to my work as a “stunt.” I think this shows how art has faded as a part of our society. People don’t know what to make of it anymore. This performance is not a stunt. It’s not meant to be funny. I read somewhere that “the true satirist is conscious of the frailty of institutions of man’s devising and attempts through laughter not so much to tear them down as to inspire a remodeling.” That’s how I come at things. Satire is so thoroughly concerned with justice, morality, and virtue, as am I. A definition of satire offers: “Although satire is usually witty, and often very funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humor but criticism of an event, an individual or a group in a clever manner. with the tool of exaggerating what is absurd or wrong about that thing.” That is what I do best.
HD: A blogger asked: I am a black American. Why would I want to put my body on the street and beg for reparations?
da: The performance is an amazing experience. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and about your fellow Americans.
HD: Isn’t it offensive/demeaning/patronizing to offer random black people spare change?
da: Do the performance and find out. Handing black people reparations has been nothing but joyful for me. When I’ve done so black people understand that the reparations payment I hand them is both 1) symbolic and 2) just the beginning of what we all hope we receive. People are delighted to hear that actual white people paid reparations and are more than happy to receive it. In the four cities in which I’ve done this performance, only one black person turned down a reparations payment. I was definitely surprised because few people turn down money in general, but she understood what I was doing. It was one of my favorite moments. You can see this on the video. We can’t spread the idea that paying reparations demeans African Americans, otherwise we’ll never get any kind of reparations plan in place.
HD: Another asked: I am a white American. Isn’t it weird for me to ask for reparations? Who is going to give them to me in passing?
da: People of all races are welcomed and should do this performance. Simply tell people what you are doing- collecting reparations for African Americans from white people and giving them out to black people. I think it’s wonderful to have people of all races involved in this. If we would all take on the causes of our neighbor we would be a much more successful society. Non-black people in this performance are showing how important it is to work for other people’s issues.
HD: Why should whites today pay for what whites in the past did? Especially if we are not related to them/immigrated to America after slavery?
da: Make a payment because you believe that people who have been wronged whole-scale by your race by creating race-based slavery, should receive apology and rectification of that wrong. There’s no reason you should react as if someone is pointing blame at you or asking you to donate your first born to science. You are a member of a country and a race that enslaved a group of people. Take responsibility for that. I find so many double standards among white people. I am told daily by whites that black people need to take care of our own and our poor, violent, jailed and uneducated and all the other things they see on their televisions. But when the time comes for whites to take care of the issues facing their community (like reparations) they run away crying “it wasn’t my fault!”
HD: How do you make the argument for whites today paying reparations without involving the subject of ‘the legacy of slavery’ or racism today and the way whites still benefit economically and otherwise?
da: It is a good thing to understand the legacy of slavery. This country’s economic success was built on the labor of enslaved Africans and African Americans. This economic success, post civil war, was rightfully taken by the freed blacks in the form of land, property and participation in the government they had worked to maintain and grow. The government took back this rightful inheritance and gave it to white people and it has not yet been evenly distributed to African Americans. The fruits of our labor are still disproportionately in the hands of white Americans. This is only the economic side of slavery. There are also the psychological, cultural, physical, criminal educational, and emotional legacies. If you understand this history then white people will make a payment to voice their stance as a member of the white race who wants a truly co-equal society.
HD: Won’t this performance give whites the wrong impression? What of the white donor, who after “doing their part” washes their hands clean of responsibility?
da: A LiveJournal user wrote: “I regard it as getting white people to start seeing it as something personal -- which many do not. However, it is necessary that they know they have benefited, and that they owe something to the larger picture about this. Saying “the government” owes the reparations is a contradiction to our idea of “government by and for the people”. We are the People, ergo, we are The Government.
And aren’t our incomes or our inheritances (meaning property that supports us in some way through our family and family connections) somehow tied to the “property” of our race?”
It is an admittance of whiteness as well; when a white person pays a reparation (in my performance) they admit that they are related to whiteness. Whiteness is what enslaved blacks and denied compensation. I hope we don’t really experience white people as shallow enough to think that their paying one dollar will wash their hands clean of slavery. If we truly have this fear, it only shows how much work we have to do on racism in this country.
HD: Does this trivialize actual day-to-day panhandlers?
da: No. This work grew out of a respect for what they do as a form of work. Nothing will give you more appreciation for the hard work of panhandling than panhandling itself. I say that from experience. I state clearly in the instructions for the performance that people should not choose a corner that interferes with the work of other panhandlers, and that the performers’ first action should be to give money to the panhandlers in the area in which they tend to do the performance.
HD: How can I be involved if it is not possible for me to actually panhandle on October 10?
da: You can be involved lots of ways! You can wear a t-shirt, or put out a collection box at work. There are tons of ways you can participate without panhandling. Be creative and send me ideas and pictures of what you do!
HD: What if there are no black people where I live?
da: You can send the payments to me and I’ll distribute them for you and let you know who gets them.
HD: What about parts of the country where panhandling is illegal?
da: Please be safe. Panhandling is a risky business. You must do this performance with a partner. In Portland, where I will be panhandling they will have just started enforcing a “no sitting on the sidewalk” law. I plan on actively breaking it because I don’t agree with it. If you disagree with those laws in your city, I encourage you to research the penalties then resist the law if you feel comfortable. You should always be kind to any police or security officer that approaches you. Answer their questions. Make it clear that you are making art not trying to cause trouble.
I encourage everyone who is registered as a performer to join our performers’ blog where we talk about these issues. Listening to the audio work gives you a sense of the range of reactions. I have a hotline set up for reactions and will give panhandlers my phone number on the day of the performance so they can contact me if need be.
HD: How much should a white person give? How much should be handed out to each black passerby?
da: That is completely up to each performer and up each audience as participants. Since I shifted my art-making process from making gallery objects to making participatory “now art” I’m thrilled to see how people enact each work in their own ways. This performance does exactly what I believe art should- engage powerful issues in situ with everyday people and generating dialogue. I hope people write me and let me know what happens!
35 performers and counting....
Register to participate in NATIONAL DAY OF PANHANDLING FOR REPARATIONS at http://reparationsday.com. Email damali ayo about this performance at reparations@damaliayo.com
An interview with damali ayo, creator of National Day of Panhandling for Reparations
September 2007
Since I announced the National Day of Panhandling for Reparations, I’ve received some wonderful feedback, including some concerns and questions. I asked Heather Day to gather together these questions and put them to me. I hope this helps the conversation continue and deepen. Ultimately, of course, I hope it encourages more of you to join the performance and find out for yourself exactly what it is like. Experience is always the best road to understanding. – damali ayo
Heather Day: damali, you’ve been asked a lot of tough questions about your upcoming participatory performance “National Day of Panhandling for Reparations.” What do you make of people’s reactions?
damali ayo: I’m all about starting dialogue. So I’m glad people are talking to each other, though it’s not quite the caliber of conversation it could be. People often give art a quick glance, then react react react. We live in a sound-bite society and art just doesn’t fit into that mindset. Art asks you to slow down. That is one of my favorite things about this work especially. It literally asks people to slow down, to stop and take it in as they walk by on the street.
Even though I provide a lot of information and explanation on the web pages, people still don’t take the time to read, watch or listen. We live in a society where people are taught to react by lashing out instead of by learning. I wish that would change in general. I don’t mind criticism, but I wish our society was more knowledge-driven rather than reactionary. This interview is yet another attempt to engage people beyond cursory reactions. I hope people will spend time with it, and be encouraged to go back to the web page and read, watch and listen. If you are for or against the work, then write a letter to your local paper or favorite news organization, instead of writing me. Let’s broaden the conversation. This is a dialogue for our nation, not a few select folks.
HD: Let’s start with one of the most frequent issues raised: Isn’t it degrading for black people to beg on the street for reparations? Doesn’t this just play into stereotypes that blacks are lazy and looking for a handout?
From the performance statement: African Americans have tried several means to recoup reparations for the enslavement of our relatives, with little progress. Panhandling shows the last resort of African Americans after our government has ignored or denied all previous requests for reparations. Panhandling is an immediate means of exacting reparations. We offer ordinary citizens the opportunity to pay the reparations our government has denied us, or to walk past our presence on the street and continue to ignore our collective history.
da: The performance exaggerates how EASY it is to pay reparations, showing our fellow citizens and government that they are failing at such a simple task. We’re not asking for a meal or a job, we are asking for reparations. Reparations are not a handout. That’s an important point. It doesn’t equate reparations with a handout- it pairs the two to show the absurdity of equating them.
The performance exaggerates the begging feeling that African Americans might have as we ask and re-ask for reparations from our government. How many ways and times do we have to ask? No one should have to beg for what is rightfully owed to them. Many black people have told me that they either feel desperate, degraded and devalued in the reparations conversation or they just want to give up on it entirely. This performance shows our level of frustration in a clear tangible way to the American public.
The fact that some people want us not to beg is part of the performance itself. I hope that citizens all over the country see people panhandling for reparations and do all they can to stop us by encouraging our government to offer the reparations that African Americans are due.
HD: How do you define reparations?
da: Reparations is such a complicated concept.
Economic reparations payments are to repay the economic investment made by enslaved African American people. This is the “we never got paid and are owed money” argument. Reparations are also made as a symbolic gesture to acknowledge slavery as a moral and legal wrong. Without reparations, the United States government is officially stating that enslaving Africans and African Americans was not, in fact, a “wrong.”
This performance simply opens a conversation by positioning a dollar as a metaphoric symbol –almost like a vote of support for reparations. I of course don’t propose the “dollar in a can” approach as a solution.
HD: Shouldn’t the money go to something that promotes more long term or institutional change?
da: As an artist, my job is to get the conversation flowing so that the policy makers can pick things up with a lot of momentum and support. I don’t write the policy, I leave that to the experts. Personally, I find that organizations too quickly fall to corruption and mismanagement. I think the best reparations plan would include individual payments as well as institutional meta-change like the kind N’COBRA (National Coalition Of Blacks for Reparations in America) proposes. Their plan includes things like college loan forgiveness and free education for African Americans because of the 200 years during slavery that we were denied and held back from educational access.
HD: One person suggested that “[A performance like this] takes credibility away from any real discussion surrounding reparations, which in my opinion should be about creating/changing institutions to address inequalities experienced by African Americans.” How do you respond to this concern?
da: I don’t see how adding more conversation about reparations takes credibility away from a “real” discussion of the issue. It is a devaluing of art to say that this isn’t real or a part of that conversation. In fact, this performance makes it more real than just about anything else. The performance removes reparations from a theoretical realm and takes to the street. How can we learn if people do or don’t support reparations if we don’t’ ask them? I’m finding that many white people actually do support it and are willing to put their money behind their support. That’s definitely adding something to the conversation that hasn’t been added yet. In addition, Day of Panhandling for Reparations is a multi-racial performance. People of all races will take to the streets to ask for reparations for African Americans. This is incredibly powerful.
HD: Does this mock or trivialize the reparations struggle?
da: No. I don’t mock or trivialize racism or any struggle. I have dedicated my life to fighting oppression and increasing education and understanding. I’ve been teaching about racism actively since I was four years old. I’m not exaggerating. Even so, people question my dedication. Some people even question my blackness. This is a sad result of racism in this country. I’ve put in years of commitment to this and I stand by all I have done and all I do.
I was surprised to find out that one of the most prominent organizations advocating for reparations hasn’t collected even one name of white people who support reparations. I collected payments from lots of white people. I can name at least ten white people who support reparations right now. Where are their voices? This performance is adding some very important elements to this conversation. In addition, reparations has become such a hypothetical discussion, this performance makes the issue very concrete, very real. It allows people to weigh in with one of their most potent voting tools- their money.
HD: What about the risk of the performance leading people to misinterpret the reparations cause and therefore hinder rather than help the movement?
da: From my web page: “Social movements succeed when multiple channels are involved. This performance takes the conversation about reparations to the street, adding a grassroots element to the already present academic and legislative conversations. Citizens have both the chance to pay and accept reparations, showing our representatives that citizens do indeed want to make reparations payments and how easily it can be accomplished. In addition citizens are encouraged to send their receipts to the IRS as proof that reparations is a process supported by the general public.”
HD: Will this just piss people off and cause them to further disengage?
da: I hope that people don’t disengage. We should not be afraid of disagreement. It is a critical part of democracy. When people are “pissed off” as you say, they tend to voice this which deepens their engagement and spreads the conversation to others.
HD: In the YouTube CNN debate Barack Obama didn’t say that he openly supported reparations, instead he focused on improving our schools as reparations. You support Obama for president. How do you feel about his stance on reparations?
da: I grew up in Washington, DC in a very political household. My parents still watch a minimum of three news reports a week. I TiVo the news nightly so I don’t miss an issue. I’m no political neophyte. Reparations is an incredibly divisive issue. Not only are some white people vehemently against it, but some black people are against reparations as well. Most people don’t even understand it. Anytime I bring it up in a substantial way, any thing else I’ve said in the last hour is forgotten and reparations becomes the focus. I know from experience that actively supporting reparations would simply be death to any viable political campaign. We haven’t had a nationwide conversation about it yet. That’s why I’m taking this performance national. Hopefully then we can unite as a citizenry and ask all of our leaders to implement a reparations program.
Obama has a real point when he says he wants to help the schools as a part of reparations. Black people were denied education for hundreds of years because of slavery and so repairing that educational lag is a very important part of reparations. I believe that reparations needs to be created on both individual and institutional levels.
Let me take a moment and say that Barack Obama is a strong candidate and a strong black role model. It plagues me deeply that many African Americans plan to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton. This is terrible. She’s such a dishonest person and an admittedly dishonest candidate. She stated clearly that she would deceive the American people about her policies. Additionally there is a remarkable amount of revisionist memory when it comes to the Clintons. We don’t seem to remember that it was Bill Clinton’s empty promises to black people that drove so many of us away from the democratic party. This and caused a gap to open that allowed for the election of George Bush. I can name many black people, leaders even, who voted for Bush or Nader because of Clinton. Why anyone would trust Hillary Clinton with their vote boggles my mind. Her presidency would be a disaster.
HD: Is this performance satirical? Is it Symbolic or Practical? Activism or Art?
da: Yes. Absolutely. All of the above. Art does it all, that’s why I chose art to pursue instead of something like political office or academics.
One blogger said “The way I was reading it was as a satire, very “dark” humor to bring attention to the fact that we have been silenced in a lot of realms so lets bring attention to this by occupying public space and making people confront that which is often rendered invisible.”
This is a great reading of the work. Though there are many ways to see it, which is why I often resist over-explaining my art. I believe that the audience interpretation is a critical part of the work itself and I don’t want to take away anyone’s opportunity to interpret it by telling then “what it means.” Every work of art has a different meaning to each person who experiences it. This particular performance, in its concept, is satire but not parody. rent-a-negro.com and How to Rent a Negro were parody. This work is more symbolic and satirical- a biting commentary on the state of the reparations debate.
It disappoints me when people refer to my work as a “stunt.” I think this shows how art has faded as a part of our society. People don’t know what to make of it anymore. This performance is not a stunt. It’s not meant to be funny. I read somewhere that “the true satirist is conscious of the frailty of institutions of man’s devising and attempts through laughter not so much to tear them down as to inspire a remodeling.” That’s how I come at things. Satire is so thoroughly concerned with justice, morality, and virtue, as am I. A definition of satire offers: “Although satire is usually witty, and often very funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humor but criticism of an event, an individual or a group in a clever manner. with the tool of exaggerating what is absurd or wrong about that thing.” That is what I do best.
HD: A blogger asked: I am a black American. Why would I want to put my body on the street and beg for reparations?
da: The performance is an amazing experience. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and about your fellow Americans.
HD: Isn’t it offensive/demeaning/patronizing to offer random black people spare change?
da: Do the performance and find out. Handing black people reparations has been nothing but joyful for me. When I’ve done so black people understand that the reparations payment I hand them is both 1) symbolic and 2) just the beginning of what we all hope we receive. People are delighted to hear that actual white people paid reparations and are more than happy to receive it. In the four cities in which I’ve done this performance, only one black person turned down a reparations payment. I was definitely surprised because few people turn down money in general, but she understood what I was doing. It was one of my favorite moments. You can see this on the video. We can’t spread the idea that paying reparations demeans African Americans, otherwise we’ll never get any kind of reparations plan in place.
HD: Another asked: I am a white American. Isn’t it weird for me to ask for reparations? Who is going to give them to me in passing?
da: People of all races are welcomed and should do this performance. Simply tell people what you are doing- collecting reparations for African Americans from white people and giving them out to black people. I think it’s wonderful to have people of all races involved in this. If we would all take on the causes of our neighbor we would be a much more successful society. Non-black people in this performance are showing how important it is to work for other people’s issues.
HD: Why should whites today pay for what whites in the past did? Especially if we are not related to them/immigrated to America after slavery?
da: Make a payment because you believe that people who have been wronged whole-scale by your race by creating race-based slavery, should receive apology and rectification of that wrong. There’s no reason you should react as if someone is pointing blame at you or asking you to donate your first born to science. You are a member of a country and a race that enslaved a group of people. Take responsibility for that. I find so many double standards among white people. I am told daily by whites that black people need to take care of our own and our poor, violent, jailed and uneducated and all the other things they see on their televisions. But when the time comes for whites to take care of the issues facing their community (like reparations) they run away crying “it wasn’t my fault!”
HD: How do you make the argument for whites today paying reparations without involving the subject of ‘the legacy of slavery’ or racism today and the way whites still benefit economically and otherwise?
da: It is a good thing to understand the legacy of slavery. This country’s economic success was built on the labor of enslaved Africans and African Americans. This economic success, post civil war, was rightfully taken by the freed blacks in the form of land, property and participation in the government they had worked to maintain and grow. The government took back this rightful inheritance and gave it to white people and it has not yet been evenly distributed to African Americans. The fruits of our labor are still disproportionately in the hands of white Americans. This is only the economic side of slavery. There are also the psychological, cultural, physical, criminal educational, and emotional legacies. If you understand this history then white people will make a payment to voice their stance as a member of the white race who wants a truly co-equal society.
HD: Won’t this performance give whites the wrong impression? What of the white donor, who after “doing their part” washes their hands clean of responsibility?
da: A LiveJournal user wrote: “I regard it as getting white people to start seeing it as something personal -- which many do not. However, it is necessary that they know they have benefited, and that they owe something to the larger picture about this. Saying “the government” owes the reparations is a contradiction to our idea of “government by and for the people”. We are the People, ergo, we are The Government.
And aren’t our incomes or our inheritances (meaning property that supports us in some way through our family and family connections) somehow tied to the “property” of our race?”
It is an admittance of whiteness as well; when a white person pays a reparation (in my performance) they admit that they are related to whiteness. Whiteness is what enslaved blacks and denied compensation. I hope we don’t really experience white people as shallow enough to think that their paying one dollar will wash their hands clean of slavery. If we truly have this fear, it only shows how much work we have to do on racism in this country.
HD: Does this trivialize actual day-to-day panhandlers?
da: No. This work grew out of a respect for what they do as a form of work. Nothing will give you more appreciation for the hard work of panhandling than panhandling itself. I say that from experience. I state clearly in the instructions for the performance that people should not choose a corner that interferes with the work of other panhandlers, and that the performers’ first action should be to give money to the panhandlers in the area in which they tend to do the performance.
HD: How can I be involved if it is not possible for me to actually panhandle on October 10?
da: You can be involved lots of ways! You can wear a t-shirt, or put out a collection box at work. There are tons of ways you can participate without panhandling. Be creative and send me ideas and pictures of what you do!
HD: What if there are no black people where I live?
da: You can send the payments to me and I’ll distribute them for you and let you know who gets them.
HD: What about parts of the country where panhandling is illegal?
da: Please be safe. Panhandling is a risky business. You must do this performance with a partner. In Portland, where I will be panhandling they will have just started enforcing a “no sitting on the sidewalk” law. I plan on actively breaking it because I don’t agree with it. If you disagree with those laws in your city, I encourage you to research the penalties then resist the law if you feel comfortable. You should always be kind to any police or security officer that approaches you. Answer their questions. Make it clear that you are making art not trying to cause trouble.
I encourage everyone who is registered as a performer to join our performers’ blog where we talk about these issues. Listening to the audio work gives you a sense of the range of reactions. I have a hotline set up for reactions and will give panhandlers my phone number on the day of the performance so they can contact me if need be.
HD: How much should a white person give? How much should be handed out to each black passerby?
da: That is completely up to each performer and up each audience as participants. Since I shifted my art-making process from making gallery objects to making participatory “now art” I’m thrilled to see how people enact each work in their own ways. This performance does exactly what I believe art should- engage powerful issues in situ with everyday people and generating dialogue. I hope people write me and let me know what happens!
35 performers and counting....
Register to participate in NATIONAL DAY OF PANHANDLING FOR REPARATIONS at http://reparationsday.com. Email damali ayo about this performance at reparations@damaliayo.com