“ Now Dig This!: Art and Black Los Angeles” by art critic Ken Johnson explores the influence and presence of Black visual artists in Southern California during a time of tense race relations. Artists played a key role in expressing the sentiments of oppressed African-Americans and their struggles in their art. These artists had the talent to summarize complex issues and emotions in concise and simple ways in comparison to their counterparts in academia. The most salient points from the article include topics of African –American artists struggling, with in the White-dominated art world, to have their art be accepted and recognized as legitimate art. African –American art is criticized for not having the ability to permeate into a broader market and illicit a broader audience.

My understanding of the article is art created by White artists is perceived as superior because it is thought of as having the capacity to reach a broader audience. My reaction to this concept is both the Black and White artists create art from their own perspective influenced by their culture, life experiences, and ethnic backgrounds. When white artists create from their perspective is it broad but when black artists create from their perspective it is considered too narrow. This widely accepted perception of understanding art by categorizing it based on the racialization of the artists perplexes me. Why are minority audiences forced to consider art created by White artists acceptable, but if white audiences consider minority art acceptable they are consider to be deviating from the norm? Why can’t art just be valued for its artistic worth and not by the color of the artists?