{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "That\u2019s dope", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/625303272806350848/", "html": "

classyblacksoul:

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imblacmajik:

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imblacmajik:

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That\u2019s dope

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\n\nA History Of Black Cowboys And The Myth That The West Was White
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\n\nBrad Trent, \u201cEllis \u2018Mountain Man\u2019 Harris from \u2018The Federation of Black Cowboys\u2019\u201d series for The Village Voice, 2016\n\n

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A quick internet search of \u201cAmerican cowboy\u201d yields a predictable crop of images. Husky men with weathered expressions can be seen galloping on horseback. They\u2019re often dressed in denim or plaid, with a bandana tied \u2018round their neck and a cowboy hat perched atop their head. Lassos are likely being swung overhead. And yes, they\u2019re all white.

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Contrary to what the homogenous imagery depicted by Hollywood and history books would lead you to believe, cowboys of color have had a substantial presence on the Western frontier since the 1500s. In fact, the word \u201ccowboy\u201d is believed by some to have emerged as a derogatory term used to describe Black cowhands.

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An ongoing photography exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem celebrates the legacy of the \u201cBlack Cowboy\u201d while chronicling the unlikely places around the country where cowboy culture thrives today. Through their photographs, artists like Brad Trent, Deanna Lawson and Ron Tarver work to retire the persistent myth that equates cowboys with whiteness.

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\n\nDeana Lawson, \u201cCowboys,\u201d 2014, inkjet print mounted on Sintra, courtesy the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery\n\n

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In the 1870s and \u201980s, the Village Voice reports, approximately 25 percent of the 35,000 cowboys on the Western Frontier were black. And yet the majority of their legacy has been whitewashed and written over.

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One notable example of this erasure manifests in the story of Bass Reeves, a slave in Arkansas in the 19th century who later became a deputy U.S. marshal, known for his ace detective skills and bombastic style. (He often disguised himself in costume to fool felons and passed out silver dollars as a calling card.) Some have speculated that Reeves was the inspiration for the fictional Lone Ranger character.

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Most people remain unaware of the black cowboy\u2019s storied, and fundamentally patriotic, past. \u201cWhen I moved to the East Coast, I was amazed that people had never heard of or didn\u2019t know there were black cowboys,\u201d photographer Ron Tarver said in an interview with The Duncan Banner. \u201cIt was a story I wanted to tell for a long time.\u201d

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\n\nRon Tarver. \u201cLegends,\u201d 1993\n\n

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In 2013 Tarver set out to document black cowboy culture, in part as a tribute to his grandfather, a cowboy in Oklahoma in the 1940s. \u201cHe worked on a ranch and drove cattle from near Braggs to Catoosa.\u201d Another artist, Brad Trent, shot striking black-and-white portraits of members of the Federation of Black Cowboys in Queens, New York, an organization devoted to telling the true story of black cowboys\u2019 heritage while providing educational opportunities for local youth to learn from the values and traditions of cowboy life.

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Kesha Morse, the FBC president, described their mission as using \u201cthe uniqueness of horses as a way to reach inner-city children and expose them to more than what they are exposed to in their communities.\u201d

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Trent\u2019s images capture how much has changed for black cowboys, who now dwell not only on the Western Front but on the city streets of New York and in rodeos held in state prisons. Yet certain values of cowboy culture remain intact. For Morse, it\u2019s the importance of patience, kindness and tolerance.

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\n\nRon Tarver, \u201cThe Basketball Game,\u201d 1993\u00a0

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\n\nBrad Trent, \u201cArthur \u2018J.R.\u2019 Fulmore, from \u2018The Federation of Black Cowboys\u2019\u201d series for The Village Voice, 2016

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\n\nRon Tarver, \u201cA Ride by North Philly Rows,\u201d 1993\u00a0

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\n\nBrad Trent, \u201c\u2018Mama\u2019 Kesha Morse from \u2018The Federation of Black Cowboys\u2019\u201d series for The Village Voice, 2016

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\n\nRon Tarver, \u201cConcrete Canyon,\u201d Harlem, 1993\n\n

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So much more needs to be said on this topic.

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RDR2 kinda subtly made this point, that Blazing Saddles was doing a 70s riff off the Western-movie-as-midcentury-(White-)national-myth, the actual unsettled western frontier was where a lone black man as a pillar of a mixed-race society would be least remarkable

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