the other day i overheard a conversation about the controversial art installations
The Assassination of Barack Obama and
The Assassination of Hillary Clinton by artist Yazmany Arboleda. the conversation centered around the outrage that someone would create what was supposed to be a work of art around racist and sexist images and words, using images of Obama and his children. particular outrage was expressed at his usage of that rhesus monkey don imus' words "nappy-headed hoes" with a photo of Malia and Sasha.
when the controversy first ignited, i went to the websites and looked at the installations. what struck me about them was the fact that the artist did not create these words; he used words which have already appeared in various forms of media and juxtaposed them with photos of the Obamas and Clintons. the outrage felt by the photos of Malia and Sasha should match the outrage we should all have felt when imus referred to the Rutgers girls in that way: they are someone's daughters too. and when that attack came out of nowhere against them, i'm sure they felt vulnerable, frightened, disoriented, and hated. as one must feel in the midst of an assassination attempt.
in my opinion, the point of the works is to show us that these words, actions, and commodification have the intent of stealing something from their targets; diminishing them, making them less, in a cowardly attack which seems to come out of nowhere.
since President Obama took office, i have been wrestling with how his image and that of the first family has been treated by the media. i've grown tired of the dancing Obama skits, of impersonators dancing to "single ladies" on ET, stories about how he's dressed, backhanded comments regarding his middle name...but CNN this morning took it to a whole other level:
the front page of cnn.com reported...because this is very important news....
Obama's Half-Brother Arrested on Charge of Marijuana Possessionnow, knowing what we know about President Obama and his kenyan family, why exactly is this news? cnn themselves report:
"In his memoir, 'Dreams from My Father,' Barack Obama describes meeting George as a 'painful affair.' Barack Obama's trip to Kenya meant meeting family he had never known.
"The two men share the same Kenyan father. In the memoir, Barack Obama struggles to reconcile with his father after he left him and his mother when he was just a child.
"Barack Obama Sr. died in a car accident when George was just 6 months old. Like his half brother, George hardly knew his father.
"George was his father's last child and had not been aware of his famous half brother until he rose to prominence in the Democratic primaries last year."
i believe the same possessiveness and protectiveness which the people discussing the art installations felt is the same which i feel right now. understanding what it's like being black in america makes you aware of certain realities. one of those realities is that in the minds of many, you are already indicted: from that point on, it's just a matter of finding the corroborating evidence of guilt.
it's why we get followed around in stores, pulled over by police more often, looked upon with suspicion on the streets, accused of assault because we had the poor form to defend ourselves and demand respect.
it makes me pretty angry to see this happening to this President and the
subjective media not even having the self-awareness to avoid it. but i think it answers the question posed a few weeks back by the same news organization: is the election of Barack Obama the realization of Dr. King's dream?
nope. not even close.
that's how Madonna turned herself into a pre-ad while simultaneously turning Carlos Leon into "Papi - the youngest old man in the nursing home."
i reckon calling it Death in Hell Juice, while honest, wouldn't have done much to help move the product off the shelves? well DONE, armour!!
