06/24/2020
As a white woman in wedding photography, I stand in solidarity with Black lives and know that it is my responsibility to address systemic racism in the wedding industry. I have waited to post on my feed because I feel uncertain about how to share without centering myself as a white person, but I understand that anti-racism work for white people is innately filled with contradictions and it is important for me to use my platform to let my clients / followers know that I am committed to the imperative, lifelong practice of anti-racism.
As a white person, I constantly benefit from the system of racism that is etched into the history of our country; this system continually affords me privilege and ease due to my whiteness at the expense of threat and harm to Black lives. I am constantly learning to recognize and combat this cycle.
I have been thinking about the ways in which systemic racism informs the wedding industry, and my role in that relationship as a white photographer. Recently, I’ve noticed a lot of comments from white wedding vendors responding to posts about racism within the wedding industry by saying that “politics” don’t belong in the wedding industry space. I want to address this harmful assertion because the wedding industry is INHERENTLY political. This industry is based entirely on unnecessary spending, which means that it relies upon socioeconomic privilege in order to exist. It is no coincidence that the couples who we see in most wedding feeds are overwhelming white, cis-het, and upper-middle class. The wedding industry flourishes within systemic racism by catering to socioeconomic privilege, thus constantly reaching toward white people while pushing Black and brown folx aside (and / or tokenizing Black and brown folx to convey a false image of diverse representation and accessibility).
According to CNBC, the average cost of a wedding in the U.S. is $33,900. According to Brookings.edu, in 2016 (which is the most recent year from which I could find wealth disparity statistics), the average net worth of a white American family is $149,703, and the equivalent for a Black American family is $17,150. If you are white, please let those numbers sink in for a moment. *This means that the average cost of a U.S. wedding, the expenditure for a SINGLE DAY, is nearly DOUBLE the net worth that the average Black family possesses. The wedding market benefits from the fundamental wealth gap between white and Black Americans by continually prioritizing white couples and making the industry discriminatory and / or inaccessible to many Black Americans.
I am reflecting on how I have contributed to this disparity in the wedding industry, and how I can contribute to dismantling racism in the industry moving forward. I welcome any further conversation and feedback about this.
Documentary & lifestyle style photography for weddings, portraits, & brands. Based in Asheville, NC
