Farewell to the White Space? Overcoming Racism in Baltimore's Artistic Fields

Racial discrimination has been overlooked in artistic spaces; therefore, the exploration of discrimination against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) has been explored by interviews with experts in the art world in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2016. The foundations for this empirical analysis are three theoretical approaches: Sociologist Elijah Anderson depicts “white spaces,” i.e., spaces where BIPOC feel uncomfortable and/or are racially discriminated against at different levels. Sociologist Joe Feagin explains the “white racial frame,” i.e., an implicit systemic racism that generates meaning by discrimination. Philosopher David Lloyd laments the “racial regime of aesthetics,” i.e., the dominant Eurocentrism in defining criteria of aesthetic competence. These racial traits penetrate all areas of life, including the production and consumption of art, from individual agency to institutional structures, and from a meaning producing to a resource-dependent perspective of racial discrimination.