An older, very well dressed woman came into our shop last week and was interested in something to hang outside in her shore home.
She was checking out the different suns that we have hanging around.
This sun is made from recycled steel oil drums in Haiti. They are created from using very simple hand tools and are a labor of love. Haiti is an extremely poor country, and they use whatever resources they can to make/sell things to support themselves.
The woman carefully looked at this sun and others made in a similar fashion and she was bothered by it.
"Oh no....look at the nose! No, this won't do at all." She said as she shook her head slowly.
"I don't know", I thought to myself, "I think the nose is kinda cute, but then I'm partial." and moved the woman onto some other suns that are terra cotta and made in Mexico similar to this:
"No, these suns are grumpy, I don't want a grumpy sun." remarked the woman.
She went back to the Haitian steel drum suns again and said that she liked these better, but asked me if there were any that had different noses?
"What do you mean by different?" I asked her.
"Well, you know, ones that don't look like a black person's nose." she replied. "I want to hang this up in my shore home and I don't want to confuse the grandchildren with black people artifacts."
My jaw dropped to the floor.
"You know" she added, "I come from "Main Line Philadelphia" and the shops around there cater to what white people want to buy."
At this point I am looking to see if there is a hidden camera set up somewhere or if I am being punk'd.
It was very obvious that this woman was serious and what I managed to say to her was: "We feature a lot of different items from all over the world and they represent each culture that they are made in."
The woman walked out and it took me a while to recover from her remarks. I wish I was quick witted and clever enough to say any number of things I thought of AFTER she left, but I am not and I was really just so in shock that people still have this mind set.
To see how the steel drum art from Haiti is made, please watch this video:
