On her 64th birthday, in 2012, the conceptual artist Adrian Piper “retired from being black.” She posted a digitally altered portrait of herself, rendered in gray scale, and included a message underneath: “Henceforth, my new racial designation will be neither black nor white but rather 6.25% grey, honoring my 1/16th African heritage,” Piper wrote on her website. “Please join me in celebrating this exciting new adventure in pointless administrative precision and futile institutional control!”
The Absurdity of Affirmative Action
