I am an artist, educator, and documentarian that loves to draw and, despite being colorblind, enjoys painting. Most of my work is figurative and reflects thoughts and musings regarding my own life, circumstances, and events that I have experienced over the years.

Pass/Fail Vol. IX: Odera
©2014 - 2023 Steven M. Cozart. All Rights Reserved

Classism in the African American Community

My work as of late is reflective of my thoughts and feelings about interaction and identity in Black America, focusing on stereotypes of the African American Male and Female within the paradigm of the African American Community.  Specifically, I have noted the use of codecs (devices that compresses data to enable faster transmission of that data; also decompresses data received) to quickly pack and unpack information about African American men and women amongst themselves.  These codecs may take many forms, such as a brown paper bag (or colorism, as related to skin tone) or a pencil (or texturism, as related to hair texture).  The tones and textures themselves then serve as codecs.

The goal of the work is to begin a conversation within a public space about why these things are so prevalent within the African-American community, given the community’s history in the United States.

I hope to provide a safe space for dialogue so that the community can fellowship and reason together to move beyond these fallacies and negative stereotypes.