Quote

When I wouldn't leave home without my blue contacts or when I was bleaching my hair, I didn't have the language to articulate that I was trying to assimilate to whiteness. If anything, I was trying to look normal.

Vivek Shraya

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Vivek Shraya
Language
Whiteness
Didn
Articulate
Home
Contact
Anything
Blue
Look
Normal
Without
Wouldn
Bleaching
Looks
Hair
Assimilate
Trying
Leave
Contacts

More quotes by Vivek Shraya

Image
I am always hesitant to call myself an activist, mostly out of respect for the activists who are using their bodies and voices to protest or activists online who are constantly engaging and educating others.
Vivek Shraya
Image
As a person of color, I know race can't be stripped from admiration or preference.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I continue to explore poetry.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I don't yet know what style will be required for my next novel, but my sense is that each book will involve a new relationship to language.
Vivek Shraya
Image
As much as I believe in the capacity for art to create change, and as much as being an artist is physically and emotionally challenging, there is ultimately something a bit comfortable about making art in the comfort of your own home.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Children are receptive to talking about gender creativity, confirming the importance of the book as a means to instigate this dialogue at an early age.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I feel like I have had to catch up to the art I've made, and learn from the protagonists I have written, especially in relation to gender.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Writing about racism requires a directness that writing a love story does not.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Despite the fact that I'm not highly skilled in any visual art, aesthetics have always played a strong role in my art, including my first albums.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Music is my first love, where my artistic journey began.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I didn't want to give the white reader an opportunity to think of racism as imaginary - a sentiment that is already a central barrier in addressing the problem.
Vivek Shraya
Image
My interest in language is steadfast, but I think each project and its accompanying intentions dictate how language must be used.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I have been and continue to be committed to art as a tool to ignite, comfort, and discomfort.
Vivek Shraya
Image
In my thirties, I have felt a greater urgency to make art that highlights what it feels like to be racialized, likely due to living in a country that obscures our racism with the idea of multiculturalism.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I do use art as a site of protest, particularly in relation to dominant narratives.
Vivek Shraya
Image
My art career often feels less like an art career and more like a career in educating, usually by using my body.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I think white artists have a responsibility to be not only naming white supremacy, but to be using their power and privilege to support artists of color.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Making music has been connected to one of my greatest heartaches, because my own music has never quite connected with audiences. But it was this heartache that pushed me to explore other artistic avenues, like writing and filmmaking, and I ultimately feel most at home in a multidisciplinary environment.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I am more likely to get paid for my art if it's presented alongside a white artist, so the questions around value and agency arise: What choices should I make, or do I have to make, if I want to be compensated for my work? Why isn't my art valued on its own?
Vivek Shraya
Image
It's exciting to consider how art, in its ability to reveal, can be ahead of the artist.
Vivek Shraya