Thus far, we have focused on the use of knitting and crocheting as activism throughout American history, but we have yet to discuss the impact of craftivism in one of the most prominent movements in the present—Black Lives Matter. Once again, the uniqueness of knitting was used to bring attention to the issue. I found it particularly interesting that some of the articles we read brought up the lack of diversity in knitting. I always thought the lack of diversity was in gender and age, with the stereotype of old women knitting, but I never realized the lack of racial diversity within the craft. Specifically, the article about Ferguson’s radical knitters stated when you see someone knitting on tv or take a look at the majority of people in a yarn store, most of them are white. When I looked back on these experiences in my own life, I realized that this article was true. This made me wonder why this disparity exists—How can an activity as simple and quiet as knitting involve so much whitewashing and discrimination?
During our class discussion today we touched on the topic of knitting used as a tool to oppose social divisions as well as discussing its effectiveness in promoting change. My group discussed the importance of having an attainable and targeted goal in order for craftivism to achieve its maximum potential as a form of creating awareness for social issues, and I believe that using craftivism for the purpose of bringing issues to the public’s attention similar to ‘The Yarn Mission’ allows people to open the door to having important conversations about topics like race when people bring up the products of their activism. I similarly have had thoughts about the lack of diversity in the knitting community and had had the same thoughts regarding the gender and age stereotypes associated with knitting, but it wasn’t until I read the article about Ferguson’s radical knitters that I had looked back on my experiences crafting in general that I recognized the writer’s points to be true, I would just like to look more into why crafting is such a white dominated activity. Inclusivity and diversity of this type of craftivism is something I believe that communities have the potential to improve upon and the idea of a group of black women knitting with one another to oppose the stereotype of knitting as a predominantly white endeavor and to have an opportunity to be their most authentic selves in a group of like-minded people is a very powerful statement in itself.