I recalled a memory from my childhood where I was playing a "Bulls vs. Lakers: NBA Playoffs" on my brother's Sega Genesis. The game only had eight basketball teams, and I remember it was almost an unwritten rule that the one team that was virtually off limits to play as was the "Boston Celtics". I didn't get why at the time, so I asked my older brother. He said something to the effect of not wanting to give ”The "White Knight" any play time. What I didn't know at the time was that he was referring to Larry Bird, whom much to my brother's resentment was being exalted by the media at the time as a white savior from the increasing blackness of the sport.
I'm sure Larry is a nice guy, but I never played with him or his team as long as I had the game, to the point that I didn't even know what he looked like. He was simultaneously a very specific persona as well as an anonymous placeholder to me. Both representing a clear idea of whiteness, while also not really having a face in my 6 year old mind.
Issue 2 of SOUTHERN EXPOSURE extends from where the White zine left off. The figures are uneasy placeholders, their coverings removing individuality, leaving only skin and form. It puts into question the agency of subject removed from personal identity, and brings forwards how the institutionalized identity does a lot of heavy lifting.
