ABOUT UW QPOC PROJECT
Our Mission
Historically, there has been poor representation of queer people of color (qpoc) or their artistic works in popular media. Popular media such as film, television, and other avenues of image creation have ignored both people of color and queer populations alike, but especially queer people of color. The lack of even a chance to have a narrative of one's choice is the main motivation behind this project. This is an important topic to discuss and call attention to because when queer people of color are misrepresented, or fail to be represented at all, it can affect what kind of resources and aid are allocated specifically to those populations, resulting in both political and structural intersectional crisis. In recent years, social media has provided a new outlet for queer people of color to claim the creation of their identities for themselves, and form new discourse about what it means to be a queer person of color. Social media provides options that are often times free, easy to use, and a useful way to fight against negative or non-existent representations. Not only that, but the accessibility of social media allows people to see someone who looks like them. As it is important to feel that even though there is not visibility for a community of queer people of color on the big screen, there can be on online.
We wanted to create a blog exploring the lack of positive representation for queer people of color in popular media and in mainstream queer movements. In this blog we aim to analyze popular media such as film and tv to find examples of intersectional crisis in the representations for queer people of color. Additionally, we want to write about failures of Hollywood and other entertainment industries more generally in their lack of quality representations.We believe film, tv, and their respective industries are particularly important modes of representation because they are so popular and powerful in our culture, and nearly everyone is influenced by them. Media like film and tv have an audience reach that other modes of art such as visual, performance, or literature may not. Although we recognize that there is a lack of queer people of color representation in all forms of image creation, it is beyond the scope of our current project goals.
To attempt to combat this problem in our UW community, we will create an accompanying Instagram collective for queer people of color at UW to submit selfies, fashion, art, photography, or any other mediums of expression in order to expose the presence of queer people of color at our university, and form an internally created discourse about their experiences. Through social media, queer people of color can make themselves visible even if they are ignored by mainstream media image creation. Although our project is new, it has already received a lot of positivity from the people we have reached out to for our instagram collective. In our conversations with UW students, people are excited to see more queer people of color being represented, and have hopes that our collective will grow.
Another reason we focused on utilizing Instagram as a platform is due to idea of how accessible it is for everyone. We recognize that the lack of representation is also deeply embedded in class as well. Many qpoc artists are unable to share their art on a larger platform for several reasons, however, lack of funding is a really large part of it. Not only is there lack of funds, but the idea of how something will “sell” does not usually align with many of the stories that queer people of color are trying to share, which limits queer people of color to if one, if not any stories of identity. By creating a page on instagram, we allow the person to choose their representation, and how they want to be viewed. Allowing for the different narratives, and utilizing instagram as a free and accessible platform allows for a more inclusive space. Our focus was to be able to make us of a place where there can be a community by qpoc for qpoc. Creating new, accurate forms of representation inn our communities is just the first, although a very important step, towards eventually solving the intersectionality crisis that queer people of color face.