September 26, 2015

A white artist from Miami graffiti'd "Black Lives Matter" 2,000 times on the outside of a building in Detroit.

Analyze the racial politics of that.

The background is painted black and the writing is white, and the lettering is lined up, so it evokes the old-time school punishment of being forced to write one phrase repetitively on the blackboard (a punishment repetitively, endlessly satirized on "The Simpsons").

If you're trying to do my assignment — or you could write "Must Do Althouse Assignments" 2,000 times on a piece of paper — you should know that a Detroit gallery owner — a black man named George N’Namdi — commissioned the Miami artist —a white man named (really!) Renda Writer. N’Namdi and Writer discussed including the phrase "Lives Matter" or "All Lives Matter" and rejected it.
“It really dawned on me, we're talking about a movement here, we’re not talking about just a slogan,” N'Namdi [told The Huffington Post]. “We’re talking about something we’re trying to change, and once you start diluting the movement and making it ‘All Lives Matter’ … What issue is ‘All Lives Matter’ confronting? None.” 
That is, N'Namdi, the gallery owner, not the artist, is promoting/explaining the project to the press and telling the Huffington Post that he went through his own process of realizing exactly what the liberal press has for month's instructed us to see as the correct answer.

What about the artist? Does he have anything to say? If the Detroit gallery owner knew what he wanted on the wall in Detroit, why didn't he hire a Detroit artist? Was it sort of a performance in which the white man was the Bart Simpson, taking his punishment? Or was there no Detroit graffiti artist up to the job?

38 comments:

Michael K said...

Detroit is the ideal place for this nonsense.

Lucien said...

Without the background one might have thought this was commentary on how many black men had been killed in in Detroit without any national outrage, because they weren't killed by white cops. But no.

Fen said...

Virtue Signaling. The artist has a need to publicly preen on what a Righteous Dude he surely must be. Makes you wonder what he is compensating for. Probably pedophilia, since he tied in the school blackboard theme.

Jay Vogt said...

As usual Tom Wolfe has already covered this ground and done it better than any of us could.

Phil 314 said...

Bart's best

Ann Althouse said...

"Virtue Signaling. The artist has a need to publicly preen on what a Righteous Dude he surely must be."

The artist? That's not how the facts read.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

One of the nice things about my not giving a rat's ass about these contrived skirmishes in the so-called "culture war" is that I can look at something like that mural [?] and go, "Hey, that's kind of nifty. Guess that must have some sort of meaning to somebody."

And then consider the matter no more.

Ann Althouse said...

Frankly, I think it would be obtuse and embarrassing for a white artist from the other end of the country to go to a city where there are a lot of black people and to write on their walls that their lives matter. But the artist seems like more of a hired man or a Bart Simpson, told what to write by a black man who actually lives there. That's how the gallery owner sounds to me. It seems to be his project, not the artist's, and he seems to feel compelled to "publicly preen."

Michael K said...

"the artist seems like more of a hired man or a Bart Simpson"

He could have said, "That's ridiculous" but maybe he needs the money.

ga6 said...

Have spray can, will travel..anywhere any cause...

chickelit said...

What issue is ‘All Lives Matter’ confronting? None.

He's wrong right there, so there's no need to further analyze this "art" and his patron.

chickelit said...

'It really dawned on me, we're talking about a movement here, we’re not talking about just a slogan,' N'Namdi [told The Huffington Post].

It's one big vowel movement. It will get flushed eventually.

SGT Ted said...

What does his race have to do with anything?

There is a sense of general moral preening by white people who support the BLM BS. They get to involve themselves in a purported battle against racist authority and pretend it's still 1959. That they purposefully choose to ignore thousands of blacks killed by other blacks, as opposed to the tiny fraction wrongfully killed by the police in order to do so, rather undermines their moralizing.

Laslo Spatula said...

Actually, when looking at the photographs,there are several phrases included in the wall mural (particularly the photo of the gallery owner and the artist).

Reading downward, you get, at various locations:

"Black Lives Black Lives" (assume the dual meaning of "lives" -- plural form of life, and the condition of living -- in this context for best effect).

"Matter Lives Matter Lives" (and aren't we all just a matter of matter?).

"Lives Black Lives Black" (a matter of culture).

and

"Black Black Black Black" (the essence, wherein different connotations can be applied at each word).

Also:

If this was on a wall in NYC in the Eighties Althouse would no doubt have taking interestingly composed photographs.

I am Laslo.

Rusty said...

Shorter, eric.



Meh.

Laslo Spatula said...

"What about the artist? Does he have anything to say?"

Sounds like the painting of repeated phrases is his niche. So there is that.

"In his other work, Writer scrawls original aphorisms thousands of times, like, “Love is a risk. Do it anyway.” He told HuffPost most of his work is about “love and positivity” and that while the new mural may bring some controversy, he sees it in the same vein.

“I think 'Black Lives Matter’ is a message of love,” he said. “This particular race needs a little more attention, a little more love.”"

I am Laslo.

JAORE said...

'In his other work, Writer scrawls original aphorisms thousands of times, like, “Love is a risk. Do it anyway.” '

And gets paid for this art. Renaissance man indeed.

Dude in Detroit sees there is some guy willing to write something 1,000+ times and it is considered "art". Dude wants his moment in the movement sun. Dude has cash. A match made in heaven.

I'm sure this public art treasure will contribute mightily to a economic recovery of that poor city.

Ann Althouse said...

"What does his race have to do with anything?"

Is the wall "talking to" black people or white people?

I think there are big differences between:

1. Black people telling black people that black lives matter.

2. Black people telling white people that black lives matter.

3. White people telling black people that black lives matter.

4. White people telling white people that black lives matter.

If the wall is in Detroit and the person speaking through the wall is a non-Detroiter and white (that is, the so-called artist), then it seems to be #3. But it could be 4. If the person speaking though the wall is a black Detroiter (the gallery owner), then on a practical level it's #1, but if he can get pictures of it in the Huffington Post and forefront himself (and not the white man from Miami), then it can be #2, which is what the project should be to make the most sense and to align with the "Black Lives Matter" agenda (which he, the gallery owner, adopts and expressed to the media).

SJ said...

Detroit is a city that is majority-Black. (The Metro Area isn't, the City is.)

A good number of cops, citizens, and criminals in Detroit are Black.

What do "Black Lives Matter" activists say when an elderly Black man has shot a young Black man during an in-home robbery?

Laslo Spatula said...

5. White city people telling white rural people that black lives matter.

I am Laslo.

campy said...

"...but if he can get pictures of it in the Huffington Post and forefront himself (and not the white man from Miami), then it can be #2,..."

Oh, it's a big steaming pile of #2 for sure.

jacksonjay said...

Artists and agitators seem to be unaware of the notion of "unintended consequences." As they preen with self-righteousness, homicides skyrocket in the hood. What the Hell? Street sense sure ain't common sense.

Maybe noted numerologist Calypso Louis can ride in and rescue the neighborhoods that popo has abandoned. We know that President Smiley, Rev. Al and DOJ have turned away. We also know that it must be done by brothers.

Wince said...

Maybe he just wanted to trick a white guy into painting the wall, like Today's Tom Sawyee.

A modern day warrior
Mean, mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride

Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
His reserve a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
The river

What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the mist, catch the myth
Catch the mystery, catch the drift

The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide

Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you

No, his mind is not for rent
To any God or government
Always hopeful yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is

What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the witness, catch the wit
Catch the spirit, catch the spit

The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide

Exit the warrior
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets by on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to the friction of the day

Jason said...

It says, "Romans go home!"

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

So it's final? Black Lives Matter has passed entirely to the punchline stage?

Anonymous said...

An unimaginative graffiti artist. More graffiti than artist.

Poor guy, his hopes for becoming a real artist are forever dashed. Better get a job as a house painter, or a graffiti-over-painter who paints over graffiti so the real graffiti artists could do their graffiti again.

Anonymous said...

"People called Nigrum, they live the material?"

Achilles said...

Are they talking to the Mexican gangs that are purging blacks from compton?

Michael K said...

"if he can get pictures of it in the Huffington Post and forefront himself (and not the white man from Miami), then it can be #2,"

Yes, a steaming pile of Number 2.

n.n said...

What issue is ‘All Lives Matter’ confronting? None.”

None, really? What an insular little world they live in.

Fabi said...

Who knew that Althouse was a racial bean counter.

Fen said...

"Who knew that Althouse was a racial bean counter."

Oh we knew from the way she let CrackMC run rampant through her blog with all his racism. And from how difficult it was to get her to recognize that *all* racial slurs should be censored, not just the n-word. She holds blacks to a lower standard of conduct. Makes me wonder if she passes black students that are subpar.

paminwi said...

Until black people start caring about other black people there will never be progress. If we stupid white people say we care we are criticized
because we don't really know anything. So, black people stop asking for my caring, just go care among yourselves!
See if any progress can be made.

pst314 said...

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James Pawlak said...

This projects the lies inflicted on us by "Black Lives Matter"!

Rosalyn C. said...

"Writer spent time prior to his visit to Detroit writing the words 'Love is a risk. Do it anyway,' more than 500,000 times at the N’Namdi family gallery in Miami.

'I really just had favor on my side when it comes to how I ended up here in Detroit,' said Writer, 'I did a mural down in Miami for the son of the owner of this place (N’Namdi Center) and expressed interest in traveling while doing art – he granted me the chance and I am so happy about it.'

According to http://michronicleonline.com/2015/09/21/black-lives-matter-written-thousands-of-times-by-artist-in-detroit/

Doesn't exactly answer the question about the deeper meaning and significance of the white artist and the black or white audience. I have the feeling the reality is that he was available and willing to do such monotonous work and had his own agenda to gain public attention. He has a history of such "artistic" stunts: ELLEN DEGENERES' CONTROVERSIAL RESPONSE TO RENDA WRITER'S "SECOND ANNUAL ELLEN ART SHOW"

stlcdr said...

To be honest, why would anyone care what others think, or the 'artist'?

The observer of the art is what matters. Isn't it?

All I see is the punishment for not recognizing that 'black lives matter (dammit)'

tim maguire said...

What issue is ‘All Lives Matter’ confronting? None.”

Doesn't that statement, if true, necessarily refute the claim that "black lives matter" IS confronting something?