Bonnie Mettler

Forced Labor Camp

Thomas Jefferson’s beautiful plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia was a forced labor camp. He owned 600 slaves during his lifetime - more than any other President.

Jefferson wrote, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

Bacon Rebellion

By 1676 all of the available land had been taken by the wealthy. The late arriving elite, Nathaniel Bacon, unable to acquire land, lead 500 disgruntled, European and African landless poor to an uprising that resulted in the burning of Jamestown, Virginia.

The punishments were meted out along color lines. The construct of race was established for the first time.

Black Wall Street

Bottom image Memorial Day Parade May 30 1921

Middle image During the massacre May 31 1921

Top Image After the massacre June 1 1921

Black Wall Street (or Greenwood, more accurately) was 40 very prosperous blocks of Tulsa Oklahoma. White envy resulted in assault by rifles, machine guns, and incendiary devices dropped from airplanes. 300 citizens were murdered. Black Wall Street was burnt to the ground.

Redlining

Author Richard Rothstein writes in “The Color of Law” that housing programs begun under the New Deal were tantamount to a "state-sponsored system of segregation”.

The Roosevelt government made redlined maps of large American cities to guide federally subsidized home loans into Whites only neighborhoods.

Today, Black wealth is only 5% of White wealth and housing is a big reason.

Ketanji Brown Jackson

Since the appointment of the first Supreme Court Justice (1789) it has taken us 234 years, but we finally got here.

We now have Ketanji Brown Jackson, an exceptionally astute Black woman Supreme Court Justice to help us keep our democracy alive despite the snarling of dogs. Hallelujah!

Black Children

In Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Senate hearing for Supreme Court Justice, Senator Cory Booker said,“I am deeply thankful for you because my daughters can look at you and see themselves...because of you, they will see new possibilities. Thank you. When you sit on the highest court in the land I will rejoice!”

Hole in the Roof

America is like an old house. We are the current owners. The problem is our house has a giant hole in the roof. That hole is racism. We didn't put it there, but the house is ours now.

House Metaphor from “Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson

I didn’t realize how racially ignorant I was until, at 54, I learned of Emmett Till’s murder. Late in life, I set off on a road to discover how racism came to be. Along the journey I realized racism was like an engine, built by greed in colonial times, maintained over 400 years and it drives us still.

I am determined to have the conversations, in paint and in person concerning racism in America. The confederacy lost the war and their grip on slavery. They should not be allowed to win the nation’s collective silence about racism.

bonniebmettler@gmail.com

view artist website >

follow:

Instagram: bonniebmettler

solo exhibition:

Engine of Racism