Interior Race Theory Is a Creative Way to Decolonize Our Homes

Melissa Bradford

Previous yr, Jacquelyn Ogorchukwu published an essay on the website for her brand name Building the Body a Home about a new principle she describes as “interior race principle.” As she outlines in the proposal, we can creatively resist constructions of domination in the property by challenging ourselves to feel about the means in which politics are embedded into the developed setting and encouraging additional “racial wellness” inside the spaces that we create—especially with regards to the objects that we curate. 

The idea for inside race principle stemmed from Jacquelyn’s ordeals as a Black female in areas dominated by whiteness and the a lot of situations where by she found herself asking, “What would it look like to arrive back to a place that felt protected?” As she further interrogated this concern, Jacquelyn believed about how this perspective could be applied to structure. “The design and style self-control is seen as a thing which is really race neutral there’s often the absence of intersectional wondering,” she says, pondering, “How are things these as race or gender intersecting with the design place, and how can we make the most of these strategies of considering to produce spaces that are resisting harmful, cultural [biases]?”

Right after studying bell hooks’ essay “Homeplace: A Internet site of Resistance,” Jacquelyn started digging further into hooks’ philosophies close to building intimate areas that aid individuals offer with the hostility of racial oppression and decompress from the trauma of staying dehumanized—hooks often spoke about the great importance of homeplace in community care. In an perfect world, all spaces would functionality as sites for “restoration, remembrance, and resistance,” as Jacquelyn describes it. This is what ultimately inspired the imaginative to incorporate her passions in racial well-being, inside design and style, and substance lifestyle to even more look at how the objects we fill our interiors with tell our racialized identities and how we feel. 

“It’s this strategy that we can encourage racial wellness in our houses as a result of objects that we’re interacting with and use in our daily lives, these types of as household furniture, decor, or homeware,” she points out. “What’s definitely appealing about it is it can be valuable for communities of shade who are of course dealing with racism and require areas to restore by themselves, but it could also be valuable for white people who advantage from racism and require spaces to unlearn [that].” 

A portrait of poet and creator Alice Walker in her San Francisco home in 1989.

Anthony Barboza/Getty Visuals

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