Gee’s Bend is a unique aspect of Alabama history. It’s a settlement situated on what was once a plantation, and the people who live there are direct descendants of former slaves; after the war officially ended in 1865, former slaves stayed on the land and worked as sharecroppers and tenant farmers, but when the the economic instability of the 1930s hit, the federal government purchased ten thousand acres of the plantation and created loan programs for these black families to acquire land ownership.

Now, Gee’s Bend is also known for stunningly unique patchwork quilts, a tradition that has endured for more than a century; from a Southern black artist advocacy group:

Throughout this time, and up until the present, the settlement’s unique patchwork quilting tradition that began in the 19th century has endured. Hailed by the New York Times as ‘some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced,’ Gee’s Bend quilts constitute a crucial chapter in the history of American art and today are in the permanent collections of over 30 leading art museums.

See here:

Tradition of African-American quilt-making of Gee's Bend community, Alabama, classed as creating some of the finest US folk art #WomensArt pic.twitter.com/IEelhDmGbG

— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) April 30, 2024

And here:

Tradition of African-American quilt-making by generations of women, Gee's Bend community, Alabama. The quilts are unique, created for practical use while viewed as one of the most important contributions to the history of US culture #WomensArt pic.twitter.com/Ob4a62T88j

— #WOMENSART (@womensart1) February 25, 2024

But, the Gee’s Bend quilters just got rolled by Target; from Anna Furman at AP News:

Over the past two decades, Gee’s Bend quilts have captured the public’s imagination with their kaleidoscopic colors and their daring geometric patterns. The groundbreaking art practice was cultivated by direct descendants of slaves in rural Alabama who have faced oppression, geographic isolation and intense material constraints.

…

Enter Target. The retailer launched a limited-edition collection based on the [Gee’s Bend] quilters’ designs for Black History Month this year. Consumer appetites proved to be high as many stores around the country sold out of the checkered sweaters, water bottles and faux-quilted blankets.

The corporation cut a business deal with five Gee’s Bend quilters from two families who “received a flat rat for their contributions” rather than the proportional pay that would have surely paid more—a Target rep did confirm that the Gee’s Bend-styled merch “sold out in many stores.”

Now if you weren’t tracking, Home Ec skills, sourdough bread, quilting, sewing, and gardening have now became a trend for many younger consumers: “cottagecore” and “grandmacore” are all the rage. These people wanted the “handmade” aesthetic—to signal sustainability and non-materialistic virtues of course—at industrial manufacturing prices, which is why they bought-out the Gee’s Bend-inspired dupes and knockoffs instead of supporting the actual businesses handcrafting goods for the small business marketplace.

Obviously, this “handmade” trend for so many is still just the fast fashion of big corporation because as it turns out, Target didn’t actually have a mission to support the quilters of Gee’s Bend and their families, the executives simply exploited the beauty they create and sent it off to China to be fabricated in massive factories using slave labor in real time. From Furman:

Repurposing fabric — from tattered blankets, frayed rags, stained clothes — is a central ethos of the community’s quilting practice, which resists commodification. But the Target collection was mass-produced from new fabrics in factories in China and elsewhere overseas.

Exploiting descendants of black slaves, and using currently enslaved persons, all while claiming to be running a sales campaign for oppressed groups? You just can’t make this stuff up. Ony a woke corporation!

But the damage doesn’t stop there; apparently the deal with Target is creating severe “disharmony” in the Gee’s Bend community. Furman described the original quilting business was described like this:

Unlike the pay structure of the Freedom Quilting Bee of the 1960s — an artist-run collective that disbursed payment equitably to Gee’s Bend quilters, who were salaried and could set up Social Security benefits — one-off partnerships with companies like Target benefit only a small number of people, in this case five women from two families.

Since only a handful of quilters benefitted, the “bonds” in the quilting community are strained—to say the least. From Furman:

The profit-oriented approach that emerged, which disrupted the Quilting Bee’s price-sharing structure, created ‘real rifts and disharmony within the community,’ Turner explains, over engaging with collectors, art institutions and commercial enterprises. ‘To have those bonds disrupted over the commercialization of their art form, I think, is sad.’

And for what you might ask? As soon as Black History Month was over, Target scrubbed the names of the five Gee’s Bend women who had collaborated on the project. But trust that Target is really in business for the black creator, because the corporation “has pledged to spend more than $2 billion on Black-owned businesses by 2025.” Yet, I have to wonder… How much does Target stand to make by exploiting flat fee investments and perverting the art and creations of minority communities?

Image: Public domain.