DENVER, COLORADO- Here’s what the Denver Post article didn’t explain about the Denver high school art student who was pressured to remove her controversial piece from public display. Where was it being shown? At the Wellington Webb Building. That’s not irrelevant because it’s where viewers became offended. You could go inquire about the incident, if you knew where to ask, or where to protest the work’s removal. The WELLINGTON WEBB BUILDING downtown on Colfax. What’s so controversial, the scene is real isn’t it? There’s more.
The student’s drawing is essentially a reproduction of Michael D’Antuono’s 2014 piece “A Tale of Two Hoodies” which still sparks outrage. Missing in this version is the bag of Skittles which the black child offers the cop, locking the two figures in a standoff. Or obviously a mugging. The Skittles of course recalls Trayvon Martin and we know how that ended. The hands in the air references “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” and Michael Brown who shared the same fate.
All else about the Denver student’s contextualization of D’Antuono’s work is the same, the confederate flag uncovered from beneath the wallpaper of Old Glory. In the student’s piece the American flag appears worn through. In D’Ontuono’s original the racist flag has bursted through. The cop and hood are the same, except in the original the cop was maybe more fat.
What’s also missing in the DenPo whitewash is the context of the unamed student’s assignment. She was tasked with contextualizing TWO works. The influence of the second piece is not as apparent as the first. The boy’s hands-up wasn’t merely recalling the mantra of the Black Lives Matter movement, it was evoking the student’s other chosen influence, Goya’s famous “The Third of May 1808.” In that iconic work, a firing squad is executing a rebel with outstretched arms.
KNOWING THIS, you can see the student’s policeman has drawn his gun for an EXECUTION, not an arrest. The boy is not following an order or raising his hands in surrender. If even in resignation, this boy’s upheld arms communicate a plea. How does that inform you about this young Denver student’s understanding of “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” or “I Can’t Breathe”?
The officer’s Klan hood certifies that this shooting is a lynching. Many lynchings in the traditional sense were perpetrated by deputized citizens.
Denver Chief of Police Robert White said of the student’s work: “I’m greatly concerned about how this painting portrays the police.” Well sure, and Chief White didn’t know the half of it.
Should you go complain at the Wellington Webb Building? The Denpo article mentions Chief White intends to “have a conversation with the student and her parents.” You may want to caution that the Office of the Independent Monitor be invited attend that conversation, as a ride-along so to speak, to assure it isn’t the one-sided transaction to which we are becoming accostomed and inured.
Does Chief White think that racially enhanced officer involved extrajudicial executions should not be a student’s concern? He needs to look past what offended him and try to understand the art piece before he forces a conversation. Or what kind of conversation will it be. The student has already made her statement.
FOOTNOTE:
Here’s what Michael D’Antuono had to say about his original work. I’ve updated the original broken links:
This painting, created during the Trayvon Martin case, symbolizes the travesty of racism in the criminal justice system. It has been the object of much controversy and censorship. In 2014, I was Incensed that George Zimmerman was trying to profit from his notoriety for killing an unarmed teenager by auctioning his painting on eBay. In response, I put this piece on eBay with half of the proceeds going to the Trayvon Martin Foundation. The very same day Zimmerman sold his painting for $100,000, and as soon as it became evident that my piece was on par to pass Zimmerman’s mark, eBay shut mine down for violating their strict policy of not selling anything on their site glorifying hate groups or showing anything symbolic of the Klu Klux Klan. The hypocrisy of eBay was that at the time they killed my auction, they were selling over 1500 other items related to the KKK. Misrepresenting it’s meaning, a hate group co-opted the piece in 2015, passing out flyers in Southfield, Michigan. In 2016, a high school teacher in Nevada, was suspended for using the painting to inspire critical though.
The Denver area Pigs are incensed about it. One wrote a long article condemning it and cited Michael D’Antuono being the original artist, and saying it’s Plagiarism. Like the Pigs ever gave 3/4 of a fat rats ass about any dissidents rights.
A lot of the time I myself refer to them as Totenkopf SchutzStaffel, but most of them miss the point. They’re very comfortable running their American Death Camps. Don’t seem to have any remorse for the murders they commit.
Much less beating or pepper spraying or tasering (ah, hell, they’re all just degrees of physical assault if you strike somebody with electricity or chemical warfare or your fists feet and clubs) handcuffed prisoners.
Of course they do that in response to people comparing them to the Nazis or the Klan and you get a bunch of socially retarded animated sphincters backing up the Pigs by saying that anybody who talks back or insults the Pigs deserves to be assaulted and even murdered.
I would recommend those SRAS dudes not attempt to tell somebody to his face that he deserved to be assaulted by the Coward Ass Pigs, as the experience of being assaulted, while handcuffed (the usual PIG way of doing it) is very much a factor in PTSD and such victims of Pig/Klan/Nazi violence tend to take it really seriously.
If one does wish to tell somebody to his face that the PIGS deserve the privilege of beating or even killing civilians, then he should be surrounded by plenty of backup. Just like they usually do it anyway.
Momma always said that Coward Ass Racist Freak is as Coward Ass Racist Freak does. I found their site looking for the date of next month’s memorial service at Territorial, and still believe that would be a great excuse for a counter-memorial held at the Fremont County parking lot. For John Walter and other victims of the Sheriffs department and all other “peace” officers worldwide.
The racial or political viewpoints of the cowards doing the violence against prisoners (usually) don’t make a bit of difference.
There are two races, Cops and real people. The cops beat that into me while I was handcuffed.