Overcoming Shame Using Black Studies & Autoethnography | Dr. Katie Dieter | TEDxIndianaUniversity

Katie Dieter shares her birth story, revealing she was an unexpected child born to a white mother and a Black father, leading to her adoption by Burt and Nancy Dieter. She was named Katie Eleanor Dieter and grew up knowing she was adopted. She honors her adoptive father, Burt, who passed away on her birthday in 2016, celebrating his legacy.

Katie discusses her childhood, marked by her father's work with 'Creative Playgrounds' and the joy of her backyard playground. However, her experience on the elementary school playground starkly contrasted this, where she first encountered racism and deeply felt the shame associated with being one of the few Black children among her peers.

Her father, an art teacher, introduced her to art, which became a method of healing and reimagining a confusing world. Initially pursuing art education in college, she unexpectedly enrolled in an African American Studies class, which transformed her understanding of her experiences within a larger system of structural oppression, leading her to double major in Black Studies.

Feeling a persistent lack of visibility, Katie pursued graduate studies in African American and African Diaspora Studies. She sought to merge her passions for Black Studies, visual art, and personal storytelling, discovering 'creative autoethnography' as a powerful method. She explains autoethnography as researching and writing personal lived experiences in relation to culture and oppression, emphasizing its role in giving voice to marginalized stories, a concept reinforced by Angela Davis's quote on art's power to evoke understanding.

Katie shares her move to Kingston, Jamaica, in 2016, following her father's death. There, she created an art piece titled 'This Remains,' which visually processed her father's death and the legacy of slavery and colonialism in Jamaica. The piece aimed to counteract the historical erasure and minimization of Black experiences in art, recognizing the remnants of oppressive structures.

Katie concludes by emphasizing how Black Studies and creative autoethnography empower individuals to express themselves and imagine new futures where their stories, lives, and experiences are centered and carry meaning. She encourages the audience to reflect on their own 'playgrounds,' urging them to play fairly, uplift others, turn trauma into liberation, and find peace in grief, ultimately making a difference in their communities.