UC Santa Cruz

Code-Switching is an interactive film and game space that uses elements of deeply personal narrative and historical symbolism to illustrate the dynamics of how racism communicates through our actions and language, our systemic and institutional complicity with racism, and how one might negotiate with racism for survival. It is not meant to address a white audience, but is meant to de-center, de-legitimize, and problematize the concept of whiteness itself in a society that clings to racist values and policy.

Using dark humor, I address several issues within this work: the racism and sexism I endured from my white father, our society’s inability to acknowledge the stories of black sexual assault survivors, the potential of networked technology and data to accelerate systematic oppression through unrelenting automated surveillance, white fragility, the consequences of resisting racist notions in conversation, and the pressure to perform an acceptable blackness for survival.