My Calling Card #1

Adrian Piper

1986

Offset Lithograph

Paper

1/8” 1 1/8”

As a lighter skinned African American, Piper used this card to confront racism that she experienced. She would hand this out to people around her who said racist things, and the card would alert them that she was black and that their marks had offended her. Easier ways to deal with racist remarks could have been to ignore them, but she purposefully created an uncomfortable situation in order to lead others to realize that their racist ways were affecting her and others. She ends by passive-aggressively apologizing for the discomfort, but this discomfort is the purpose of this exercise.

Yale University Art Gallery

2016.140.1

https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/218575

Piper_CallingCard.jpg

Luke Beemer