For this blog post, I chose to speak about the TED Talk “How Can We Address Centuries of Racism in Art?” featuring Titus Kaphar. With growing protests in the, such as the White Supremacists coming together in Charlottesville, NC and various other pop ups across the nation, things are starting to get scary. Confederates are saying that their flag and heritage are more than racism and have actual meaning to them… however, what they don’t seem to understand is how that impacts a large portion of the general population. Not just monuments, but paintings and illustrations have heavy racial implications that weigh heavily on those that aren’t white. What Kaphar is trying to get across is that we don’t have to completely erase history, but use it as a way for knowledge of the future and current generations. By adding the context of  putting a spotlight on this black child that was so mindlessly thrown into the background, he is showing the power that art truly is. This gives people a feeling. A feeling that people want change. We can’t treat each other as if some are lesser than… although the past two years have shown otherwise.

Photo by Titus Kaphar

Rereading Southan’s essay allowed me to be more inquisitive than I had been the first time. I began to ask more questions about the theories behind the EAs’ thought processes. Even after looking through the Effective Altruist website, my opinion on it remained the same; I would not be able to follow that mindset. Although it is a great idea and I do believe these people may be making a difference, it is almost asking too much of us. We can’t all be expected to devote a large portion of our time or wealth to helping others. Many people don’t have enough income to be able to  donate a large sum of their income to underdeveloped nations. How is one expected to devote all of their time to other people and still stay happy with the little time they have to themselves. Is allowing time to yourself a bad thing?

The essay was overall an easy read, however very broad in who it was intended for. Written by a philosopher who was simultaneously writing a screenplay… you begin to find that his target demographic was anyone with interest. While reading this essay, I did have to use dictionary.com to define the word “coalescing”.

While reading Southan’s article, it struck me as familiar. In my current ethics class, we are discussing Utilitarianism and the moralities that are followed by it. My first big note in this reading was when Southan was discussing the moral rules that altruists follow… They intend for everything any given person does to be worth something. In today’s society, western civilization has been shaped to tell us to do what makes us happy… not what makes others happier than us.; which is essentially what altruism, and utilitarianism, tell us to do. To the members of Effective Altruism, you must justify what you are doing with your time by scaling whether or not it is contributing to the overall betterment of society. With this in thought, I began to analyze my own goals and came to the conclusion that my major would be safe in this utilitarianistic  society. Majoring in aquaculture, I could expand into the food aspect of it. I could be able to feed mass amounts of people if I were to have a farm near poorer communities. However, in order to keep this afloat, where would my income to keep the business going come from if it would be unethical to charge such a impoverished society? These altruistic and utilitarian ideals seem to ask way too much at times.

I love the ocean