Activist Artist

Artist artwork 

        The activist artist I chose is a young Asian American woman named Dena Nguyen, who became an activist artist by accident. Nguyen's initial goal was to create a new form of art every day in 2020, to explore new opportunities and art ideas. When she started her artwork, it was during the beginning of the Covid -19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic's origins, Asian Americans experienced a tremendous amount of hate and racial slurs. That motivated her to create a powerful depiction of an Asian American woman's mask that stated, "We are not a virus." That artwork was inspired by the hate that her community received. Though that was her first piece of her "This Is America" movement, her artwork did not gain popularity till the tragic death of George Floyd. Then, Nguyen got inspired and created a new piece of an African American woman whose mask stated, "We are not a threat." After that post, her popularity grew, and many other ethnic minorities started to come forward and ask her to create more artwork inspired by their stereotypes. Therefore she did and called that collage "This Is America."

My Selfie 

         

        My name is Lara M. I'm a junior at NJCU. I chose Dena Nguyen because it was one of the few times I looked at an Instagram post and had it resonate well with me. Her artwork was everywhere, which was rare for my Instagram feed because I rarely have activism posts; it's primarily just-food. Therefore, seeing her art stuck with me. Another reason why I like her artwork is because it was simple, and I did not have to decrypt it. When I recreated my selfie, my mask stated, "We are not lazy." Which is a term I heard associated with gen z for the past two years over social media. So often, we are told that we want everything to be handed over to us, and we do not want to work hard for anything, which could not be further from the truth. When we advocate for equality, a clean environment, and a higher minimum wage. We are not lazy; we want to see a difference in the capitalism and injustice that has been happening for centuries. Evidently, the protesting that occurred in Minneapolis, Minnesota, due to the death of George Floyd, raised awareness of what has been happening to the African American community for decades. Our generation hopes to one day hear; "They don't care about us" by Michael Jackson and "This Is America" by Childish Gambino and use those songs to describe past injustice. But not having Childish Gambino's song still representing the same injustice 25 years later. Because that is what happened with Micheal Jackson's song that came out in 1995, describing the injustice during that period, which described the same mistreatment that the African American community is facing today. One of Nguyen's designs that I could personally relate to was her depiction of a Muslim woman that wore a mask stating, "We are not terrorist." As an Arab-American Muslim, I was called a terrorist during high school on multiple occasions. But in all honesty, I do not blame the girl who called me a terrorist. After the horrendous event of the twin towers, Muslims experienced hate globally. During 9/11, I was only 9 months, and twenty years later, I'm still getting blamed for something I had no hand in. That hate stemmed because when a Muslim offender acts, it is labeled terrorism; when an African American offender acts, it is labeled gang violence. There is no need for media to include a perpetrator's ethnicity and religion; that label creates community division. That is the message that Nguyen is trying to convey with her artwork.