ABSTRACT
W hen thinking ab out black female spectators, I remember being punished as a child for staring, for those hard intense direct looks children would give grown ups, looks that were seen as confrontational, as gestures of resistance, chal lenges to authority. The ‘gaze’ has always been political in my life. Imagine the terror felt by the child who has come to understand through repeated punish ments that one’s gaze can be dangerous. The child who has learned so well to look the other way when necessary. Yet, when punished, the child is told by parents, ‘Look at me when I talk to you.’ Only, the child is afraid to look. Afraid to look, but fascinated by the gaze. There is power in looking.
