whitewashed cultural appropriation after church | Pantone Quilt Challenge 2026
Like everyone else participating in Sarah Ruiz's Pantone Quilt Challenge, when I saw that Pantone chose white as their color of the year for 2026...I was bummed. I thought, hell, I'm not participating in the quilt challenge now! No way! Even though I promised myself I would enter again the following year after winning the BROWN color last year (lol), I was like, what the fuck am I supposed to do with white if all I even use is COLOR?
So then I got to thinking..., and I got a little bit angrier. I texted my sisters, and all Laura replied was "dog whistle," and I said, "What???????" She said, yeah, the people at Pantone, like lots of other businesses across the country, are bending over backward to signal to the current regime that they are Good People and not Bad People. This made me so mad! Especially when I saw the people of Pantone stand ten toes down on their decision. As if they made the right decision, or they were trying to be EDGY or COOL. Even if it's not a dog whistle, someone at Pantone is trying to signal SOMETHING. The sad color white (which, by the way, is the absence of color) is synonymous with all these other times in history where culture is trying to wipe away any bleeding over of vibrant people. They want boring, sad, flat copies of all of us. So...like I did with last year's Pantone COTY, I let the color really inspire me with my current feelings.
And my people and I are currently feeling very strongly about ICE and how it is a government entity just terrorizing American citizens. If you don't like that sentence, you wound up on the wrong side of the internet!
As usual, I designed in Affinity Designer. I knew I wanted to incorporate a traditional quilt block (because, if you look at the through-line of my work, I'm always trying to sneak one in), and I was pleased to discover this Mexican Star quilt layout. It made me sick to my stomach that I was having to WHITEWASH a beautiful traditional quilt pattern, but I tried to adhere to the challenge fully--and represent white people washing out any flavor of anything beautiful from another culture.
I had an original idea of what I might "whitewash," but after workshopping some talk with a friend, it was offensive to a group I was TRYING not to offend. So I pivoted and thought, 'Where do I see whitewashing in my life?' Mexican Star...whitewashing...definitely delicious Mexican food...Growing up in East Tennessee of Appalachia, it is like THE THING to go to the local Mexican restaurant after church (La Caretta, specifically, to the one or two of you reading). So in the era of Christian nationalism, we've got white folks going to church, going to their local Mexican restaurant to eat sad, unseasoned Mexican food. Then they go home and post atrocious things on Facebook. Usually something to do with how much they love ICE or how prez T is doing a phenomenal job, etc., etc.
My floating plate of sad white people food came from there. Sad rice. Sad white chicken. Sad white queso poured on top. That they DARE call Arroz Con Pollo (which, if you've ever had the authentic version, you will want to cry eating the other)! Dripping with melting ICE just like my favorite drippy font, I keep trying to work it into my art quilts.
The plate of solid colors really inspired the background quilt's colors. I knew I didn't want them to match per se... and the fucking name "CLOUD DANCER" didn't take me long to brainstorm that I would use Batiks. I know it is not cool to admit it, but I'm a 31-year-old woman who's a little freaky and loves Batiks! I know that's not cool to say! But I love them! And I picked out the lightest shades of each color that I could find in Batiks, and that's how I made my background.
It took me about two days to FPP the Mexican Star quilt. I was really not pleased with this quilt at this point because the orange was much darker than I wanted, so I planned to use white thread to stitch over it. I ended up not doing this, but it needs to be said that the orange really bothers me!
After this, my friend Kaia Kessler made a custom longarm panto of the dripping marker font, with the word HYPOCRITE repeated over and over on the quilt. I think it looks reallllllllly good, especially when you consider the meaning that white Christian nationalists are full of hypocritical venom these days. It's always lingering in the background of everything that they do.
From there, it was time to start appliqueing all my extra pieces — my two questions for Christian nationalists and my frozen plate of sad, unseasoned food. Before the police come after me, I understand that both appliqué steps would look much nicer if I had used needle-turn appliqué. Yeah, yeah. I get it. But anytime I start thinking that, I remind myself that I am a mother first! And working a full-time researcher position second! Quilting and art quilts don't really make it into the list of priorities these days, so if there is a shortcut, then I will probably really consider it.
I didn't use black thread over the frozen plate of food, but I did on the letters. I may have made a mistake, but I stand by my decision based on what I saw.
Next, it was time to use white thread to hand embroider the HYPOCRITEs and the extra text I wanted to add. It took me a little longer than I anticipated because my youngest got sick during this period, but I'm still thankful I slowed down and took the time to do it!
FDTs in my recent work.
A pic I sent to Meesh
Gooba watched Sesame Street while he tried to kick his fever!
I asked some friends on the internet what dishes they thought of when they imagined "white people's Mexican food," and their responses are stitched together surrounding the frozen food. Chicken chimichangas were the most frequent answer, which, as an Appalachian, I find slightly funny, because that was the "RICH" white people's Mexican food LOL--nobody around me was ordering that place because it was the most expensive! To this day, I still don't even think I've tried that plate.
But I've tried everything else! And they taste good! I'm not going to sit here and type and act like I didn't attend those Mexican restaurants after church, either. The difference between us is...I recognize that Mexican food has been whitewashed, BIG TIME, in the southern region, and that restaurants would probably love not to culturally appropriate their dishes to make money for people who don't want their food to taste like anything but cheese. Plus, I'm not going home and cheering for ICE. I think ICE is awful. I detest everything about what Christian nationalists are trying to rebrand ICE as. Plus x2, I know authentic Mexican food is delicious, and what has been done to the sad Arroz Con Pollo dish is heartbreaking. :')
Last but not least, I USUALLY (unless I run out of time) like to have a little sneaky sneak of something on the back of my art quilts. I decided to keep it simple AND TIME EFFICIENT. I broke my number one art quilt rule, a promise I made to myself I would NEVER DO!!! Paint on a quilt!!! I don't like mixing my mediums, and kind of don't really like the look of paint on a quilt when I see it, but I decided to break my self-imposed rule this time. You know why? Because it doesn't matter. None of it fucking matters. Everyone is breaking rules right now; surely I can be allowed to put fabric paint on the back of a stupid white art quilt.
I made the writing and direction of the words kind of wonky on purpose. I wanted the viewer's eye to be on it longer than it would take to read it. And then once the viewer finally reads the statement correctly, they might have, like, an ugh, gross moment. I hope so. Because it is gross.
If you're looking for some more photos, I have some more detail shots on my Instagram and on this post. Thanks for enjoying and reading!