Can AI Destroy Racism? - Part I

In part one of his new thinkpiece, The Robot and I Fight Racism, Vietnamese visual artist Thành Trần reflects on the ways in which racist ideologies permeated his psyche from a young age, and writes with candour on the effects of bearing these internalised beliefs into adulthood.

TW: Heavy mentions of racism.

PROLOGUE 

If you’re familiar with digital painting, you’ll probably have noticed that the majority of digital artworks are portraits of conventionally attractive, white women. Where Asian women are portrayed, they are ordinarily represented with very fair skin and eurocentric features. In general, mainstream art lacks representation when it comes to the inclusion of people from all ethnic backgrounds. 

As an artist, I felt a responsibility to address this imbalance within my work; I myself have rarely painted Black or brown skin, but was propelled to place more attention on this issue following an incident that took place while on a video call with my parents last year. 

My parents have lived in Hanoi, Vietnam for most of their lives, so some of their opinions could be considered a bit old-school. The conversation we were having was about generational trauma and the importance of mental health. It sounded like they had grown a lot, at an age that we rarely expect people to grow – but then the conversation took a turn. My mum unexpectedly began spouting racist sentiments towards Black footballers as a game played on the TV in the background. Referring to “these people” as she did, her comments left me both aghast and disturbed; but was I really surprised? 

Even though this kind of rhetoric was the norm around me while I was growing up, I had held out hope that the age of online social interactions would have somehow changed their viewpoint. It led me to wonder: were there still traces of racist ideologies from my past that remained unaddressed inside me?

“When I found out that a lot of Black and brown people also used to look in the mirror and wish their noses were more like white people’s, it struck me that despite our different ethnic backgrounds, we have faced many of the same experiences.”

THE PAST 

My Chinese tutor from university once told me that Asian people don’t fight racism as hard as Black people do. I agreed with her, though I didn’t quite understand what she actually meant at the time; did she mean that Black people tend to take more action against the system that was built around the erasure of their experiences than Asian people do? Or maybe she meant that Asian people don’t fight their own inner racism, and their racism towards people with dark skin? 

Looking back, I can recognise just how deeply ingrained anti-Blackness was in my adolescent psychology, and acknowledge the ways in which my internalised racism infected many of my thoughts and behaviours. As a kid, none of my friends would choose the Black Power Ranger as their favourite, and anyone who did would be ridiculed. During my teenage years, my classmates and I had a dare to see who could say the N-word the loudest when there were Black tourists around. Even up until my early 20s, I hated my nose so much, wishing I was white so I could be more “beautiful”. 

It’s only now that I can see how those things stemmed from the negative portrayals of Black and brown people in the mainstream media that my parents and I consumed. As kids, we absorbed our parents and grandparents’ insecurities and judgements like sponges, so it was easy for these racist ideas to pass through generations – especially when we belonged to another underrepresented race who were possibly seeking to affirm our own sense of superiority.

When I found out that a lot of Black and brown people also used to look in the mirror and wish their noses were more like white people’s, it struck me that despite our different ethnic backgrounds, we have faced many of the same experiences. It really hit home to me that we all carry the echoes of the discrimination around us.

Read part two of Thành’s article, here.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Thành Trần is an animator living in London. When he is not animating, he takes photos, does tattoos, writes poems, makes music and learns how to play Chess.