Ahead of her new show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Japanese pop artist Yayoi Kusama apologized for racist comments she made about Black folks over the course of her career.
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Hyperallergic called out these gross comments in June most recently surfaced those comments in June. Last week, a critic at the San Francisco Chronicle also talked about how Kusama dehumanized Black people.
Her deeply offensive words can be found in her biography, Infinity Net. In it, she described Black people as “primitive, hyper-sexualized beings.”
In the original Japanese edition of the book, Kusama labeled her New York neighborhood a “slum” where real estate prices were “falling by $5 a day” due to “Black people shooting each other out front, and homeless people sleeping there.”
Those remarks were removed from a English translation that came later. A different passage described a young Black girl she saw in photos as having an “exotic face.” Kusama also said that she “envisioned America as a land full of these strange, barefooted children and virgin primeval forests.”
In addition, Kusama’s 1984 novel “The Hustler’s Grotto of Christopher Street” also has descriptions of Black characters’ smells and genitalia that fetishizes them to provide shock value.
Kusama’s 1971 play “Tokyo Lee” calls its sole Black character a “WILD-looking, hairy, coal-black savage.”
“I deeply regret using hurtful and offensive language in my book,” Kusama said in an exclusive statement to the Chronicle. “My message has always been one of love, hope, compassion, and respect for all people. My lifelong intention has been to lift up humanity through my art. I apologize for the pain I have caused.”
Kusama’s said sorry for her repeated instances of degrading Black folks after being called out about it. The fact that she has done this for decades without remorse only leads to one conclusion: she is definitely still racist.
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