400 Bad Request...

If you are a dabbler in coding as a consumer, creator or even an admirer--you likely have generated or observed the 400 error code.

Defined as a bad request to a server, I often think of it when I am asked, in my role as a data analyst, to do something ill-advised.

But wait a minute. I am getting ahead of myself and the story I am thinking about. Error codes are often thrown in data projects and in my case--when bad requests arrive disguised as race. Recently I had the chance to give the topic the time and attention it deserves.

Yesterday, my college-aged son asked if he could interview me for his final in Africana Studies. He is creating a podcast episode and of course I agreed. The questions he crafted were original and well thought out. The goal seemed to be soliciting recollections of how, I as a mixed race black woman, was raised and prepared for the world by a white mother and a black father. I could have answered, “I wasn’t”, and left it at that but there was more to say.

I told him that in the 70s there was no way to appreciate the nuance and beauty of diversity. You were asked if you were black or white and those were your choices. Green-eyed defiant 7 year olds learned to fight when attacked by others that didn’t like the responses. My parents were surprisingly silent on the topic unless specific situations required intervention.

Coincidentally, DNA paints a beautiful story illustrating how the question was flawed--not the response. I shared that for about the length of time I have been his mother is about how long I have identified as black and not mixed or biracial. This means I have only been black for about 20 years. I hadn’t leaned in on either side for fear of alienating the opposite parent but society has a way of forcing your hand.

We talked about how the best description of racism includes that it is only approachable from the lived experience.

These thoughts were top of mind as our interview progressed, sharing with my son how Spencer Kornhaber (Atlantic Monthly) described "Childish Gambino’s sensational “This Is America” video, as implicating the viewer in the misuse of black art".

I rely on art to shape my visions and lived experience into a reality that I am able to explore. One of my favorite contemporary artists in this space is Theaster Gates.

Theaster's' post this morning will take time to absorb and experience.

""This morning, I'm reflecting on the objects the show up in my space work and object work. The brick I use for my walls and architectural structures is also the material I'm able to use for sculpture and to make slips and engobes for ceramic vessels.The black body, for the potter, could refer to the manganese rich, iron filled clay body that produces a range of surfaces, from deep purple to old gold. At the studio, we can take unfired bricks that we have produced in the Carolinas and process them to make sculptural bodies, throwing bodies and slurries for surfaces. These shifts in the black body from solid to liquid, wall to vessel to shine, feel very much connected to the ways 1 understand the rich complexity of the cultural affects and investigations that emerge in the work of black and brown people. Black states of being. Liquid and solid states of knowing. Concrete and abstract ways of being."--Theaster Gates

When we are asked about race, is the question invalid (client-side)? Is the ask, “too big” (server -side) or is it just a malformed request and what are the potential solutions? Although most 400 errors are indeed client-side, if you think of the?server?as a network object (representing society at large) it seems like there is room for blame on both sides.

If your response code isn’t recognizing race as a poor biologic proxy and political/social construct--what comes out in response is not valid.

Build a better response...