January 30, 2019

"Viewers cannot determine the intention of an artist’s work. Art also exposes society’s blind spots. Blackface is only a glimpse of a larger issue."

"The larger issue is the lack of representation of marginalized people and their voices in Phoenix.... At the downtown Phoenix restaurant, my concern that the photograph of men in blackface was a threat to me and my face and voice were ignored. A business’ photograph of men with blackened faces culturally says to me, 'Whites Only.' It says people like me are not welcome. The operators of that downtown restaurant can choose to take the photograph down, leave it up or create a title card with an intention statement. No matter their decision, I think the photograph should be taken down — sacrificing one image for the greater good."

Writes Rashaad Thomas — "a husband, father, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, poet and essayist" — in "Phoenix restaurant says this is a photo of coal miners. But I see offensive blackface."

Here's the photo that troubled Thomas so much that he doubled down even after he learned he was mistaken in not understanding that these are human beings whose faces were darkened not by their own deliberate imitation of black people but by terribly hard physical labor:



Thomas is saying the picture made him feel so bad that he wants the restaurant to proactively spare him from his own misperception. He's not taking this opportunity to reflect on his own good fortune — he is able to be a poet and an essayist — in comparison to the grinding work of coal miners. And I can see that he's getting mocked for calling attention to what is, after all, his mistake.

But if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception. I like to think that if I were considering decorating my restaurant wall with this photograph, I would at least notice that some people might think this is white men in blackface and I would pick something else. Certainly, if I'd put it up and a customer confronted me with this misperception I would feel compassionate and very eager to let him know not just what the picture really was but also that I never meant for anyone to imagine that it was blackface. And, really, I would hold myself to a higher standard. Quite aside from blackface, I would ask myself whether my comfortable establishment should trade on the aura of poor coalminers. It's "poverty porn."

From the Wikipedia article, "Poverty porn":
Poverty porn... has been defined as "any type of media, be it written, photographed or filmed, which exploits the poor's condition in order to generate the necessary sympathy for selling newspapers or increasing charitable donations or support for a given cause." It is also a term of criticism applied to films which objectify people in poverty for the sake of entertaining a privileged audience.... Poverty porn is used in media through visually miserable images, in order to trigger some sort of emotion amongst its audience....
Now, of course, I see that the men are smiling and enjoying the alcohol and camaraderie. That's what makes it seem like a good idea for a restaurant photograph. It says, no matter how hard your day, and especially if you've had a very hard day, it's great to spend some time hanging out over drinks.

But messages can be misheard. You could be standing on the street one day, smiling, and find out half the world reads your face as an asshole racist smirk.

246 comments:

1 – 200 of 246   Newer›   Newest»
donald said...

They forgot shitbird in his bio.

Mark O said...

If only there had been coding jobs to which they could have migrated.

J2 said...

A lot depends on what else was displayed on the walls

J2 said...

Like a theme.

William said...

If this republic is going to endure, three simple words must enter the lexicon:

Get over it!

That is all.

rhhardin said...

Blackface is fine in any case. Who makes these decisions.

Lucid-Ideas said...

If it were my restaurant I would laugh at him and tell he should #learntomine.

MadisonMan said...

The complainer should check his privilege. As you note, he's never had to endure back-breaking physical labor that destroys his lungs.

Jack Klompus said...

Why not add "activist and community organizer" to your bio as well, Rashaad?

Not Sure said...

I don't suppose this assclown would be appeaed if told that the miners' lungs were about as black as their faces.

Lucid-Ideas said...

Nobody tell him about this. This crap's bad enough here...we don't need to create any international incidents.

gahrie said...

But messages can be misheard. You could be standing on the street one day, smiling, and find out half the world read your face as an asshole racist smirk.

And apparently your answer is that one must never stand on the street smiling. (At least if you are a White male.)

Why is the problem the man standing with a smile instead of with the assholes "reading" him wrongly?

Original Mike said...

"But messages can be misheard."

I have no sympathy for people who, upon learning they were mistaken, choose to be "offended" anyway.

wendybar said...

So real life pictures of what REAL hardships REAL people go through should be hidden because somebody might get butthurt thinking it is something else. We are f*cked.

Henry said...

Althouse said:
messages can be misheard

The poet advised:
create a title card with an intention statement

Everyone needs a deck of intention cards. Wear them proudly.

Crimso said...

Paging Jeff Goldstein!

ga6 said...

If it were my establishment there would be photos of filthy men making steel at USS, National, and Republic in honor of members of my family. Owners restaurant, owners walls.

Nonapod said...

But if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception. I like to think that if I were considering decorating my restaurant wall with this photograph, I would at least notice that some people might think this is white men in blackface and pick something else.

The problem is that it's not always abundantly clear what people are (or choose to be) offended by. Being (or appearing to be) righteously offended is power. You can destroy a person or a group of people or an entire business with your offence. There's a heady rush in that sort of power. Sure, it's immoral to ruin peoples lives to satiate that particular desire for power. But that immoral act is rewarded in our current culture.

Bob Boyd said...

Is there anything you could put on your wall that couldn't be found offensive by somebody who wants to be offended?
Decorations are the new 'Whites Only' signs.

tim in vermont said...

Good luck designing your restaurant in such a way that nobody could conceivably be offended.

Them are the “hillbillies” that ‘Once written...’ is always on about. So I guess they are offensive in that manner because there is a good chance that they wouldn’t have voted for Hillary, who promised to close all of the mines. They might have, and I shudder to think it, voted for Trump.

Not Sure said...

Funny that no one's complaining that everyone in the photo identifies as cis male.

Jack Klompus said...

@Lucid

I was in Beijing around Christmas a few years ago and walked past a Dutch restaurant with a Black Pete standing outside. A whirlwind of conflicted thoughts and emotions including, "What if I'd gotten a picture with him for shits and giggles then posted it online?" and "This is definitely not Philadelphia."

robother said...

SJW grievance mongers gonna grieve. Planning your whole business/life around anticipating their ever-expanding complaints is literally surrendering your individual freedom, in precisely the way Orwell predicted. Wake up, Ann--its the opposite of woke up.

Jupiter said...

To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, Let him eat shit.

Seeing Red said...

A business’ photograph of men with blackened faces culturally says to me, 'Whites Only.' It says people like me are not welcome.

No one is preventing him from becoming a coal miner.

Shouting Thomas said...

The operators of that downtown restaurant can choose to take the photograph down, leave it up or create a title card with an intention statement.

So thoughtful of lefties to tell other people how to run their businesses.

The NY Times thinks it should have a say in who makes partner at Paul, Weiss.

All businesses should be run according to the dictates of some writer somewhere. I mean, who in the hell do business owners think they are?

PM said...

Oh for chrissakes. Hope this guy never stumbles into a museum and sees Sebastiao Salgado's portraits of Indian coal miners, Brazilian gold miners, etc. What magnificent stupidity.

Wince said...

That photo reminded me of the Cheers intro montage, that collection of Beacon Hill whites-only imagery culminating in the bartender holding up a newspaper headline that says “WE WIN!”

Of course you won: white privilege.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7KtAgAMzaeg

tim in vermont said...

Maybe we should take all such artworks as this that cause offense to this guy, place them in a pile in the public square, soak them in diesel fuel, strike a match, and march bravely into our new world where the past never happened.

Bob Boyd said...

This kind of thing deserves to be laughed at, not rewarded or encouraged.

Gospace said...

Rashaad Thomas — "a husband, father, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, poet and essayist" and special snowflake. They left that out.

rcocean said...

You and the poet are bat-shit crazy.

Some miners were well-paid and it was good honest labor. Somebody had the dig the coal and have a brewski after it was done. And no matter how much they were paid, they still got coal dust on their faces.

As for the black guy, he should be mocked mercilessly for being a self-righteous, self-important, dumbass.

Derek Kite said...

I'm surprised you see racial connotations to that photo.

I see this as a social disconnect from the people who make thing work. The servants quarters out back and out of sight. You see someone with outward evidence of the work they do and it becomes an insult.

Why can't they clean up and be decent?

I worked one summer for a roofing crew and turned dark brown. Someone wondered if i was a native Indian. How dare i appropriate the characters of an oppressed people!

Ann, what do you have against working people?

rcocean said...

What other photos did they have on the wall? They were probably going for a British Pub thing.

Freder Frederson said...

But if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception. I like to think that if I were considering decorating my restaurant wall with this photograph, I would at least notice that some people might think this is white men in blackface and pick something else. Certainly, if I'd put it up and a customer confronted me with this misperception I would feel compassionate and very eager to let him know not just what the picture really was but also that I never meant for anyone to imagine that it was blackface. And, really, I would hold myself to a higher standard. Quite aside from blackface, I would ask myself whether my comfortable establishment should trade on the aura of poor coalminers. It's "poverty porn."

Really, Ann?! I'm as politically correct as the next guy, but this is just stupid to think this is "blackface" or has any racial overtones at all. This guy claims he was in the Air Force. Did he run to his C.O. and complain that he felt threatened if other service members blackened their faces for night patrol?

Humperdink said...

Recall the use of the word "niggardly" in DC several years ago and subsequent kerfuffle. It's too late for our society.

rcocean said...

In a sane world, this guy would be satirized in a SNL sketch.

The hyper-sensitive SJW, who see racism everywhere, like Seinfeld's uncle who thought everyone was an antisemite.

tim in vermont said...

Every copy of Heart of Darkness should be burned, oh there are so many books that should be burned! Huckleberry Finn, almost all of Faulkner, and especially Including Fahrenheit 451 which mocks the idea of burning books!

rcocean said...

On the plus side, plenty of free publicity for the restaurant.

Freder Frederson said...

Some miners were well-paid and it was good honest labor.

I wouldn't go that far. Until the UMW finally won their wars (and yes people were killed for trying to unionize), mining was a low paid and very dangerous job (it is still very dangerous).

JAORE said...

"But if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception."

El Predicto sez, "You'll be changing the art work on a regular basis."

Especially once the barbarians learn you can be pressured into compliance by the factually wrong, but emotionally "right".

Bob Boyd said...

Okay, we tried to see this from both sides and guess what? It's still ridiculous.
If that picture ruined the guy's day, that's on him. Get a life.

Tommy Duncan said...

"But messages can be misheard."

Messages can be intentionally misheard.

Messages can be intentionally misheard to play the victim.

Messages can be stupidly misheard attempting to play the victim.

Messages can be intentionally misheard and make you look like a ignorant fool.

tim maguire said...

It's time to stand up against stupid restrictive anachronisms like it's per se racist for a white person to darken their skin.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a white person putting on black face and it is racist to say otherwise.

tim in vermont said...

Tom Brady in blackface.

MikeR said...

You're changing the subject. What the restauranteur does is a separate question from, Why is someone publishing an article demonstrating that he's a snowflake, and demanding that everyone else not melt him?

Jack Klompus said...

Conrad's The N-Word of the Narcissus and Flannery O'Connor's story The Artificial N-Word are good reads.

tim in vermont said...

Imagine if you were running a bookstore and there were titles in there that could be interpreted to offend anybody in any way! Remove them!

rcocean said...

"Until the UMW finally won their wars (and yes people were killed for trying to unionize), mining was a low paid and very dangerous job (it is still very dangerous)

Who said it wasn't dangerous? All mining is dangerous. It was well-paid, compared to other physical labor. Compared to being a farm laborer or digging ditches. And automation came fairly early in US mining, and people who were supervisor and machine operators made some money.

And yes, the UMW did some great things for the miners.

Original Mike said...

Wow, Althouse, when you've even lost Freder...

Karen of Texas said...

My grandfather was a coal miner in Alabama. He also farmed the land around his house to support the eleven children he fathered. During the Depression, as poor as they were, if you were willing to pitch in and work the fields for a day, he would send you on your way with some of the fruits of his - and your - labor. His word was his bond. He was strict but fair. He died of mesothelioma at the age of 75.

Mr. Whiner can suck a lump of coal. He is in the perpetually aggrieved class.

Good for you thinking you know what wouldn't offend anyone. If cotton floral stems at Hobby Lobby can set someone off, I contend you might be full of yourself if you think you know how to avoid being a target in the $hit show that passes for our country today.

Unknown said...

To poverty porn you might add animal porn, all those ads featuring starving and neglected animals to generate sympathy.

tim maguire said...

if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception.

Then your restaurant would have bare walls and nobody would eat there because the ambiance sucks.

TDP said...

The article seems to have been written by a leftist with horrible writing skills. Or it's a Russian AS (artificial stupid) bot.

Wince said...

And look at the “smirk” on the face of the guy at the very end of the Cheers intro!

rcocean said...

Bottom line: There is NO blow-back or downside to screeching Racist at someone. Or faking a "hate crime". There's some clown TV actor who's claiming "Gay Haters" put a noose around his neck and beat him up at 2 AM in Chicago when it was 0 degrees outside.

Cause that's what Conservatives do on Saturday Night in Chicago.

But this is good for laugh.

JAORE said...

Real question:
If a business has artwork that depicts a leftist position, MAGA = KKK, Orange Man BAD!, Global Warming DOOOOOOM, late term abortions, seize the (20 oz) Sodas, a Che poster, etc, is that worth discussing?

Would the manager tell you to piss off?

Would a bitch session on that get published.

El Predicto sez:
No - Yes - No.

Chris said...

Althouse opens a restaurant. The walls are grey and blank less something on them offend someone. Each race is represented in the staff so no one thinks this establishment caters to one race or another. There is no food because she does not want to be accused of cultural appropriation since most dishes are derived from the culinary arts of many different cultures. There are no tables and no chairs since that might offend the differently abled. No spirits are served because that might offend someone religious. So what is the point of the place again?

tim in vermont said...

Blogger EDH said...
And look at the “smirk” on the face of the guy at the very end of the Cheers intro!


It’s because he knows he’s white.

William said...

As J2 points out, a lot depends on what else was displayed. If there were lots of pictures of hard working men enjoying a beer, I would say that the person taking offense was offbase. If, on the other hand there were lots of pictures of Al Jolson and minstrel show performers, than I would side with the aggrieved,......Didn't Arizona have a lot of mining communities? I think they were copper mines, though. Copper miners had rough lives, but they didn't get black lungs or sooty faces. It would be wrong for copper miners to culturally appropriate the sufferings of coal miners in order to generate unearned sympathy for their travails. An aggrieved coal miner probably has the better case than an aggrieved black person.

gilbar said...

in the olden days, Roseanne Roseannadanna would have just said; Never Mind!
but, now; when our idiocy is exposed; we double down

Bay Area Guy said...

"a restaurant says this is a photo of coal miners. But I see offensive blackface."

This is a person bathed in pointless victimology syndrome, and I see a moron.

Fernandinande said...

"At the downtown Phoenix restaurant, my concern that the photograph of men in blackface was a threat to me and my face and voice were ignored."

"A colleague pointed out a few weeks ago, after hearing this story, that if [belief in witchcraft] is nearly pan-African then perhaps some of it came to the New World. Prominent and not so prominent talkers from the American Black population come out with similar theories of vague and invisible forces that are oppressing people, like “institutional racism” and “white privilege”."

...and the vague invisible threatening forces emanating from a photograph.

tim in vermont said...

I wonder what the Althouse Art Gallery would look like?

And yet she runs this blog, so just to be clear, my jabs are at the hypothetical Althouse which she posits as a model of a restaurant owner.

rcocean said...

BTW if you look at one of the guys beer mug you can see a Cross.

Call the SPLC!

Fernandinande said...

Yes, I really think Rashaad Thomas's brain is operating in witchcraft mode.

tim in vermont said...

...and the vague invisible threatening forces emanating from a photograph.

The photograph stole his soul?

Wince said...

You want to go where people know
The people are all the same

You want to go where everybody knows your name

rcocean said...

"the photograph of men in blackface was a threat to me and my face and voice were ignored."

What about his gall bladder, was that threatened to?

Leslie Graves said...

I can imagine many different photos that look like one thing, but are really another in the same way that this one could look like white men doing blackface but is really coal miners.

Just to use one example as a hypothetical: A face of a woman who is grimacing so badly that you think it is a photo of a woman being tortured but, as you learn when you inquire, is really a photo of the face of a woman in labor. (I'm sure others could make up better examples.)

Like Ms. Althouse, if I displayed that photo in my home and learned that some of my guests thought that I was displaying a picture of a woman being tortured....yeah, I'd take the photo down. I'm not displaying art to bug people or because I want to get into long conversations about what the photo is really all about so what would be the point?

gilbar said...

so, militant moslems are OutRaged at Nike, because they interpret the new air max shoes to be insulting to Allah https://www.chicksonright.com/blog/2019/01/30/nike-offends-muslims/

They were insulting to america, with Colleen Kapernickl and that was just fine
But, now, Unintentionally, they've given offense to moslems. How long before these shoes are changed?

tim in vermont said...

BTW, is it really “poverty porn” for those of us interested in how our fathers and grandfathers existed? Not all of us come from a line of rarified blood stretching back to Cotton Mather. My grandad plowed behind a mule. We have a family picture of the time he hurt his back and all of the neighbors brought their mule teams to plow his fields, is that “poverty porn”? Because they sure were all none of them rich.

Lucid-Ideas said...

Recall this?

Don't put up any photos of families Ann. Not you and Meade. Not anyone. No families!!! Also not the word "family" - as in those cliché wood-worked craft signs.

Messages can be "misheard". You wouldn't want to be asked "what type of family" would you!?!?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

White privilege, black lung

Paul Zrimsek said...

On the plus side, this is the first time in years that one of the Anointed had anything to say to coal miners besides "learn to code".

MaxedOutMama said...

You can't delete history on the grounds that it offends modern sensibilities. This guy should be laughed out of the public square.

wildswan said...

Trying to impose issues from the South and East on the West is simply ignoring the people - all of them - who live there and have lived there. The West isn't just a poet's destination or a vacation area. The geology of the West means that there are minerals and coal in great abundance out there and lot of people in the West have always depended on mining jobs in one way or another. And many social issues out in the West have been mining issues mingled with Hispanic and indigenous people issues mingled with anti-government issues. Saying in the West: "you can't have a picture which would mean something different where I come from in the South", a place a thousand miles away with largely rural economy and a different history ... that's questionable. It makes a person sound like "The Government."

Yancey Ward said...

I guess I can't call the guy a snowflake without offending him.

tim in vermont said...

But yeah, McDonalds should avoid controversy wherever possible. Though the equestrian pictures you see at McDonalds sometimes surely offend the likes of Trumpit (remember, you can’t offend!) as the horses are enslaved by speciesist <<--in spellcheck, but Justice Kavanaugh’s name is not!)

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, I don’t know which has surprised me more, that you would blog about this incident, or that you would take the side of the imbecile. I would have imagined that after being associated with Meade as long as you have, that you’d appreciate a man who works (worked) for a living. I have no sympathy for the shithead who mistakes coal dust from a hard day’s work in the mines, with its filth and danger — a quick death from a mine collapse or a slow and painful death from black lung — with blackface worn to mock prople. Rashaad Thomas is right; he is not welcome at a restaurant that caters to decent, hardworking people.

Bob Boyd said...

So no crackers with the soup anymore either, I s'pose.

Freder Frederson said...

Someone needs to tell this guy there is a huge difference between "blackface" and having a blackened face.

Howard said...

The unceasing avalanche of outrage porn for deplorables is a small price to pay for an Instalaunch. Be sure to patronage the Bezos Dollar store and get some cool stuff delivered via free shipping

TDP said...

Althouse: "But if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception. I like to think that if I were considering decorating my restaurant wall with this photograph, I would at least notice that some people might think this is white men in blackface and pick something else."

White people must be PC-compliant. Freedom of expression must be PC-compliant. PC-Think is Enlightened. PC-Censorship is PC-Good.

The picture is neither "racist" nor "poverty porn". The picture is a very real, powerful view of Americans from our past and the hard lives of many Americans who came before us. Even average Americans used to understand such things.

But they're white, so censor.

Bob Boyd said...

All these white plates! They're like white faces...surrounding me...staring at me...smirking at me...hating me!
AAHHHHHH!

Robert Cook said...

I think people should grow up. If images intended to caricature or demean minorities are displayed, there is cause to protest the images and their purposeful display by those who put them up. If someone has mistakenly perceived images as something they are not, the perceiver needs to get over him- or herself and say, as Emily Litella so often did, "Never mind!"

Curious George said...

Althouse, what's dumber than your position on this article is your thinking the photo is poverty porn. The men are having a beer, and smiling, after a hard days work in the mines.

Sheeeze.

Robert Cook said...

"Blackface is fine in any case."

Why?

Fernandinande said...

militant moslems are OutRaged at Nike,

“It is outrageous and appalling of Nike to allow the name of God on a shoe. This is disrespectful and extremely offensive to Muslim’s and insulting to Islam,” Noreen wrote in the petition.

Apparently god is named "Air Max". Who knew?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"You and the poet are bat-shit crazy."

All poets are bat-shit crazy, and have been for nearly the past hundred years. The "art world" is now solely the province of the mentally ill.

Anyway, I thank that "poet" for his service, bravely risking his life in the Chair Force.

an errbody KNO onlee BLAK SLAVEZ eva hadda wIrk har! dem rayciss witeez in blakfaice min was LAFFIN an SMIRKEN at blak fokes suffurin!

Professional lady said...

My grandfather and his brother were killed in a coal mining accident in West Virginia in 1923. Two widows were left with 8 young children between them. When I look at that picture, I think of how hard those men worked to support their families and under what dangerous conditions. Maybe the restaurant owner had some family history like that - maybe not. If the Complainer doesn't like the photo, leave the restaurant and don't go back. No one is forcing him to be there or look at the photo.

Curious George said...

My family comes from western PA and Youngstown, OH. Coal country and a steel town. Most men's faces looked like that at the end the day, from the mines and the mills. Poverty porn. Jesus Christ.

Freder Frederson said...

Oh no Althouse! Look at these assholes in blackface

CJinPA said...

The Left argues that only white people can be racist because "racism = prejudice + power."

Who has the power in this case? The business owner or the media-savvy poet (MSP)?

All of the parties involved knew the MSP had the power, including the newspaper, which knew it had no choice but to run this absurd opinion piece lest it be targeted as well.

Freder Frederson said...

You have to scroll down a bit at the link to see my snark.

wendybar said...

But if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception.

Make sure you don't put up a picture of your son smiling. Some people will see it as a racist smirk.

stevew said...

"if I were considering decorating my restaurant wall with this photograph, I would at least notice that some people might think this is white men in blackface and pick something else."

That would require a leap of imagination, or something, that I suspect lots of people, me included, do not possess. If I were decorating my restaurant, a destination for regular working folks, in which I wanted to establish a working man theme, then this picture that I know to be of coal miners enjoying a drink after work, then it would never occur to me that someone would see it as offensive.

tim in vermont said...

Look in the background of this picture Elizabeth Warren put out on Instagram

Freeman Hunt said...

"Art also exposes society’s blind spots."

And the blind spots of individuals.

Matt said...

"No matter their decision, I think the photograph should be taken down — sacrificing one image for the greater good."

The "greater good" now means not offending the ignorant? How about the restaurant leaves it up, as a way of saying that if you are an ignoramus like Rashaad Thomas, you are more trouble than you're worth and you should go elsewhere?

robother said...

"Of all the pictures on all the walls of all the restaurants in Phoenix...."

What are the chances that this AirForce-American poet just wandered into this restaurant and was triggered? Kind of like the chances of an Afro-gay rap artist encountering a MAGA-hatted lynch mob on the streets of Chicago on a 40 Below night, I guess.

Jay Elink said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim maguire said...

Robert Cook said...
"Blackface is fine in any case."

Why?


Why not?

It's been generations since white entertainers put on make up so theatres and film companies didn't have to hire blacks. It's simply not racist in today's America and hasn't been for many generations.

It's time for someone to demand that the race hustlers accept reality and stop dividing our society for their own selfish ends.

Bob said...

This deserves the "civility bullshit" tag.

Yancey Ward said...

My father worked in underground coal mines from when I was 4 until 14 years of age. During the first couple of these years, we lived in one of those old coal company houses in McVeigh, Kentucky that had an attached bathhouse where the worker would come home to shower and change out of his work clothes. My father would usually clean up at the mine facility, but since he could walk to and from work, he occasionally walked home and used the bath house shower when it was warmer. I had never seen my father after a day in the mines, and the first time I did, I was playing outside the house when he walked up and greeted me covered in coal dust head to toe. I didn't recognize him at all, and when he told me who he was, I reportedly told him he was lying and that my dad "wasn't black".

My name goes here. said...

timinvermont said...
"Maybe we should take all such artworks as this that cause offense to this guy, place them in a pile in the public square, soak them in diesel fuel, strike a match, and march bravely into our new world where the past never happened."

Diesel fuel doesn't burn that way.

Jay Elink said...

Tim, that's been shown NOT to be a black kid grinning over a watermelon, but a Greek Vase seen from a low angle looking up.

Try googling it.

traditionalguy said...

This time cultural appropriation is being used by the African American. A picture of white miners looking like black sheep is a coal mine after a 12 hour work day cannot possibly shame a black man, unless he is ashamed that he looks like working class Union Member.

Leland said...

Twitter spent the weekend blocking people for posting #LearnToCode. It was a reference to Obama's comment to coal miners as he created regulation that destroyed their industry in the US. The Press that gleefully passed along Obama's sentiment lost some work in their industry last week, and didn't appreciate getting mocked. So Twitter decided to take sides in the issue and blocked users that suggested the reporters "Learn to Code".

If Twitter can do with its establishment as it pleases, to garner patrons that it prefers, even if Twitter's actions violates their own terms of use and promises to Congress; then I support the restaurant owners desire to do as he pleases.

Rusty said...


Blogger William said...
"As J2 points out, a lot depends on what else was displayed. "
I disagree. The photo stands on its own. No other criteria is necessary. It is self explanatory. Your interpretation is yours alone. Or you could ask,"Hey, what's up with the picture?" You do not have the right to edit or censor someone elses opinion.

walter said...

Howie disapproves of the blog content and demeans its revenue stream.
Noted.

RK said...

I would call Thomas a "snowflake" but snowflakes look white and it would then be kinda awkward.

Paul Zrimsek said...

Frequently, I enter art galleries and I am not represented in the art

Don't even get me started on that Jackson Pollock.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

The democrat party members demand that Americans submit to whatever interpretation of their words, behaviors, and articles of clothing that Democrat party members decide. Your smile is a smirk- Up against the wall!

This is part of the progressive destruction of a free market society, and the next step after insisting that men who cut their dicks off are women, and women who pretend that they are men then get pregnant are actually men who have been impregnated, that there are dozens of genders, and that you must honor whatever mental illness progs are displaying while being responsible for whatever debased motive they attribute to your words and actions, articles of clothing, and whatever pictures are hanging on your wall.

These pieces of shit are trying this because they get away with it. Fuck them. Stop humoring fucking rotten prog ideology!

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I can't believe this asshole is complaining about these men in blackface. What a dick.

He should be complaining about the white privilege and toxic masculinity just reeking from the photo.

tim in vermont said...

hat's been shown NOT to be a black kid grinning over a watermelon, but a Greek Vase seen from a low angle looking up

I thought the rules were to jump to conclusions and stick to them regardless of what the facts show. That’s how the whole Covington Boys thing happened, or are we supposed to follow rules that don’t constrain your side? Warren is a clueless tool, that’s not just the narrative, it’s a fact, so the picture is “fake but accurate."

wildswan said...

Althouse is correctly describing the Rules for Restaurants in Madison Wisconsin. But Madison is Snowflake Central in Wisconsin due to the University and State government both being there. Someday incidents like this will be examples of PC-Face, hypocritical virtue on social media replacing real virtue on real issue. Real issues? Yes, What about all those people in a building in Chicago which has been without heat since November without the city caring. Why doesn't Rahm go there and stay there till the tenants get some damn heat? The temp in Milwaukee-Chicago is -55 today.

Howard said...

Walter: oh contrary, Just relishing in the comedy gold of a liberal professor exploiting you people for fun and profit

John Ray said...

Ann, have you ever seen photos of WW1 pilots deplaning after a mission? Have you ever seen photos of race car drivers after the last lap? Have you seen photos of Panama Canal workers after a long day? Have you ever seen photos of WWII aircraft mechanics after preparing machines for missions? Hell, I wager not, because these are all some kind of porn -- too mean for your sensibilities.

Daniel Jackson said...

The problem, actually, is quite simple: the picture is on a Wall; Walls are immoral; therefore, the picture is immoral.

tim in vermont said...

Diesel fuel doesn't burn that way.

Well, I was thinking safety first. Yes, you would have to light something more than a match to get it going.

CJinPA said...

What is the social penalty for false claims of racism?

If the answer is "There is none," we're just inviting more of it.

Anonymous said...

But if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception.

Yeah, but it's not your restaurant, or Rashaad Thomas's either. Not everybody thinks that everybody ought to spend his life stressing out and walking on eggshells around dumb, aggrieved people who have nothing better to do with their lives than look for reasons to be aggrieved (or shakedown opportunities).

Furthermore, the writing of someone who is "a husband, father, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force" shouldn't read like some ignorant college sophomore's Grievance Studies homework, and no sane society insists that intelligent adults should kowtow to people like that. If the obnoxious SJW cliché "educate yourself!" properly applies to anybody, it applies to people like that.

Or how 'bout scolding Mr. Thomas about not judging other people's intentions uncharitably? (Wasn't somebody talking about that around here not long ago? Or is the "principle of charity" an intellectual and moral virtue only to be recommended to certain select groups?)

As for the "poverty porn" angle, fuck that, too. It's all just too precious.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Tim, that's been shown NOT to be a black kid grinning over a watermelon, but a Greek Vase seen from a low angle looking up.

Try googling it.


Big Chief Warren should either take it down or put an intentionally plaque on it.

Why aren't you letting Tim's voice be heard?

glam1931 said...

A couple of years ago I was working for a restaurant and the owner, who was a personal friend, asked me to help decorate it before it opened. I went through a warehouse of artwork and found some nice things, mostly scenic or nostalgic in nature, and hung them up. A few days later the owner pointed at two pieces and insisted they must go, because some old biddy who worked for the local freebie rag found them offensive, and we couldn't afford that. They were both pieces of advertising art that objectified women by showing two ladies on plates as "delicious dishes". So shocking! And offensive!
The women in the art were fully dressed and wearing bustles. The artwork was clearly identified as being from 1915.
This was rather symptomatic of the thinking at the restaurant, which tried to please and accommodate everyone (vegan options! gluten free!) and ended up pleasing no one. It closed in less than three months.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Fitzgerald said...

"The Greater Good"- an absolutely chilling expression straight from the annals of Orwell. There is no Good in submitting to democrat party terrorists.

Big Mike said...

But messages can be misheard. You could be standing on the street one day, smiling, and find out half the world read your face as an asshole racist smirk.

No intelligent person ever believed that for a second.

AZ Bob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

Comment deleted because Bill said it better.

AZ Bob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

No intelligent person ever believed that for a second.

How does that rule out the idea that “half the world” believed it?

RK said...

Ann, have you ever seen photos of WW1 pilots deplaning after a mission?

A really interesting exhibit of photographs could have the title, "Americans in Blackface -- Shades of Toxic Masculinity"

Original Mike said...

"No matter their decision, I think the photograph should be taken down — sacrificing one image for the greater good."

Placating a neurosis is NOT the greater good. Exactly the opposite.

walter said...

Yes Howie,
Exploitation!
But it's no surprise you're a freeloader.

AZ Bob said...

A lot depends on what else was displayed on the walls. J2.

Context is everything. It appears to me that Rashaad Thomas understands that these were coal miners but that doesn't change his need to attack the posting of the picture.

If you have been to Lyon, you probably ate at a good but inexpensive type of restaurant known as a bouchon. Wikipedia explains:

"A bouchon is a type of restaurant found in Lyon, France, that serves traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, such as sausages, duck pâté or roast pork. Compared to other forms of French cooking such as nouvelle cuisine, the dishes are quite fatty and heavily oriented around meat....

"Typically, the emphasis in a bouchon is not on haute cuisine but, rather, a convivial atmosphere and a personal relationship with the owner."

When I saw the photo, the first thing that came to mind was that these men worked hard and were rewarding themselves after work with a hearty meal and convivial atmosphere.

My next thought was that many would die prematurely from black lung disease.

These are stories that should be told and are well described by such photographs.

Fen said...

Althouse: "But if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception. I like to think that if I were considering decorating my restaurant wall with this photograph, I would at least notice that some people might think this is white men in blackface and pick something else."

Unbelievable. You would avoid honor Coal Miners to appease some ignorant and delusional grievance-monger.

This is tbe most cowardly thing I've ever heard you say.

bagoh20 said...

Fuck off.
Get a life.
Find something worthwhile to be offended about.
Learn about the culture of others so you don't make a fool of yourself with your ignorance.
Get over yourself. Your views are just yours. I don't have to accept them or kowtow to them.
Again, fuck off.

AlbertAnonymous said...

Life must really suck for some people, they just walk around being threatened by photographs and hats and smirks.

Grow the fuck up!

walk don't run said...

Some years ago we were visiting some friends in PA and on our way there stopped off in Wilkes Barre to have lunch. We ended up going to a hotel at the center of town and as we walked through it noticed numerous old photographs of miners hanging on the wall. All of them were black faced by coal dust. What was most surprising were photos of children working in the mines. One that I particularly remember showed young children, 9, 10 or 11 sitting in coal bunkers sorting coal. Overlooking them was a severe woman who looked like she was more than up to the task of disciplining them. It was to put it mildly a disturbing and sad photo.

Wilkes Barre was the center of coal mining in the past but was clearly a depressed and sad town by the time we visited. I was shocked that the hotel would have a gallery of these photos on display - not exactly the most welcoming of decoration. What was even more disturbing was the realisation that child labour in such circumstances was pretty commonplace not so long ago.

MartyB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Temujin said...

Stop the madness. Just stop it. The restauranteur wanted a shot showing hard-working men sharing some camaraderie and a beer after work. HOW do I know they had just finished work? Well...they are OBVIOUSLY miners who had coal all over them.

Too many people have been trained to see a worse world than we actually have. It's pretty bad, but they are finding shit wherever they want, wherever they look. And if they don't find it, they'll make it up. I'm looking at you, Jussie Smollett. (a name I had never heard of until yesterday). He got what he wants. Everyone knows his name now.

roesch/voltaire said...

Ah poets are so sensitive they see metaphors in every beer. Interestingly the nearest coal mine to Phoenix is on tribal land in the Black Mesa field in the far northeastern part of the state, so I wonder why the photograph of coal miners and not cattle ranchers in dust face.

Fen said...

"J2 points out, a lot depends on what else was displayed."

No. It really doesn't.

THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS.

Why are you giving ground to delusional people? That's actually quite dangerous. They belong in a mental hospital.




bagoh20 said...

Althouse again is part of the decline. Assholes are just assholes until people start taking them seriously, then they become censors, tyrants, and ruiners of human relationships and culture.

What if you had a piece of Picasso on the wall and some asshole comes in and says it looks like murder and dismemberment? Do you think that any of the artwork you have featured on this blog could be interpreted as something bad by some kook? Do they get to censor you? Do you think that this standard might be totally incompatible with art and the opposite of artistic expression? And you a student of art.

bagoh20 said...

BTW, I find your photos of snow to reek of white privilege, and the dog photos are just exploitation of a non-consenting living being.

TickTock said...

It's coddling these misperceptions of bias that allows this ultra sensitivity and class warfare to continue. My grandparents and great grandparents worked hard for a living. Why shouldn't their toil and labor be publicly recognized.

Fen said...

I think this guy is trolling everyone to see just how much people are dominated by tbe SJW brigades. Like tbe professor who slipped a chapter of Mein Kampf past Peer Review to show how deep the rot had gotten.

bagoh20 said...

Are Blacks appropriating the culture of coal miners?

bagoh20 said...

There is always plenty of still life art of fruit for the timid widely available at your local yard sale.

reader said...

So this is the slope. It starts with statues and moves to photos of our actual history.

Poverty porn to some - family photos to others.

bagoh20 said...

Could a Black man be shown doing physical labor without someone seeing a slave?

chuck said...

If Rashaad wants to spend his life outraged at trivia and cultivating ignorance, that is his business, but I won't pander to him. I enjoy those old pictures, they provide a window to the past.

Kevin said...

But if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception.

You could be standing on the street one day, smiling, and find out half the world read your face as an asshole racist smirk.

Do you contradict yourself? Very well then you contradict yourself.

The idea that we'd carefully pick non-offensive decor and then double down by removing any to which someone takes offense is absurd once you think it through. Where does that stop? Are you taking meat off the menu because it offends vegetarians? Are you repainting the walls because they remind one diner of her childhood bedroom and her incestuous father? Must the chef not wear his well-worn Cincinnati Reds cap to work because it reminds another kitchen worker of a MAGA hat?

Are people's own desires and preferences theirs to have anymore, or have we subjected our human individuality to the veto of the mob?

These are the questions which are being put to us at our time in history. We must answer carefully and with full knowledge of what each accommodation brings.

DAN said...

What probably really offended the offended was the cross God projected onto the beer mug.

bagoh20 said...

I'm from Pennsylvania. Art just like this is very common in public venues and private homes, much of it family photos. It is the proud history and culture of millions of people, and that history and culture is just as valid and sacred as anybody else's.

This is just further acceptance of the racism of our time. Anti-White racism. We're up to bat. Are we going to fight the racism of our time, or turn our eyes down and let the bigots do their bigoting?

Fen said...

"I was shocked that the hotel would have a gallery of these photos on display - not exactly the most welcoming of decoration"

Why were you shocked? Instead of indulging their guests with soft snd pleasant scenery, they chose to remember the men who built America?

Maybe they are just proud of their grandfathers?

You guys DO know what coal is why it's so important, right? Electricity doesn't come from your light switch any more than steak comes from your supermarket.

And you've heard folksongs about the hard life of a coal miner? You know about the Federal "Black Lung" Compensation programs, still paying medical their medical expenses today?

The ignorant poet needs to learn to respect his betters. He's not worth what it would cost to feed him.

Darrell said...

If you see one of those Black guys at a urinal and he has a white dick, it means he's on his honeymoon or another miner has a sore asshole.

Kevin said...

There is a high school art show tonight at my daughter's school. Based on prior years, there will be pieces to which I can take offense.

Should I do so, I'll be told it's just art and it's improper for me to censor a student's artistic expression.

However, should I attend wearing the wrong hat or shirt I'd be asked to cover it or leave.

It's not about being non-offensive. It's about power.

mccullough said...

What a privileged whiner. He doesn’t like to look at photos that remind him that a lot of white men don’t have as easy a life as he does. It really ruins his own bukkshit narrative.

They mock him.

Anonymous said...

Jay Elink: Tim, that's been shown NOT to be a black kid grinning over a watermelon, but a Greek Vase seen from a low angle looking up.

So? She shouldn't have objects in here house that could possibly be misinterpreted as something racist when viewed or photographed from a particular angle.

And if that's a Greek vase, I have it on the best authority that "appropriating" any aspect of Classical culture is a White Supremacist thing ('cause it's a complete myth, bigot, that classical culture has anything to do with Western so-called civilization).

At this point Warren just needs to shave her head and go hide in a monastery where she can fast and repent with minimal (but not zero!) danger of micro-aggressing some poor PoC.

Kevin said...

One side of my family immigrated to America from the coal mines of England.

Wish I had a picture of them.

walter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
walter said...

Poverty Porn..for the ladies!

Rosalyn C. said...

Frequently, I enter art galleries and I am not represented in the art, which leads to uneducated curation for exhibitions.

What an absurd and insane statement -- I suspect his whole claim is a lie and that he never goes into art galleries, let alone frequents them. I can't think of any contemporary art gallery which only or ever shows portraiture of white people. If the guy sees a landscape or a still life or an abstraction does he really not respond because he doesn't see himself?

I looked at that photo and the first thing I saw were the pints of beer. I also noticed a reflection in one of the glasses is a cross. Then I noticed the smiling men and the odd woman on the right. What is the meaning of that? Everyone sees whatever they see. I saw a historical bar scene. I saw no attempt to attack black people.

Darrell said...

I have an African vase from the Sixth Century BC that depicts Black men building something that looks suspiciously like a 1960s Cadillac Coupe De Ville. And where is their credit?

walter said...

"I am not represented in the art"
Yeah well...many "whites" have the same feeling.
But after all, it's about making viewer uncomfortable..

SayAahh said...

Ex-air force vet goes into a restaurant for a cup of Joe.
Waitperson asks "how do you take your coffee?"

Poet says "Umm... on second thought I'll just take a glass of milk."

walter said...

That's how "white privilege" works..

YoungHegelian said...

The real question is were they listening to Al Jolson records on the gramophone?

stonethrower said...

Boy, Ann. You are whack on this one.

Big Mike said...

@RJ, I grew up in a quarry town. The first thing I noticed was men who work with their hands for long hours and low pay in dangerous conditions.

PackerBronco said...

"A business’ photograph of men with blackened faces culturally says to me, 'Whites Only.' It says people like me are not welcome."
======

Hmmm. I feel the same way when I look at the starting lineup of the Golden State Warriors...

Jeff said...

I am extremely offended by the drawings of rats this blog has featured recently. It doesn't matter why I'm offended, only that I am.
Shut down this blog at once!

Anonymous said...

walter: "I am not represented in the art"
Yeah well...many "whites" have the same feeling.
But after all, it's about making viewer uncomfortable..


Ah, walter, I think you have put your finger on an essential feature of Althouse's moral universe. To wit, that there are two kinds of people in the world: those whose sensitivities must always be deferred to, and those who should be "challenged" to "think deeply". (These groups are mutually exclusive.)

Only in the latter class is "it" about "making the viewer uncomfortable". The viewer who belongs to the former class should be protected from being made "uncomfortable" in any circumstance.

This is a disturbingly patronizing world view; perhaps Althouse should be "challenged" to "think deeply" about her unexamined premises.

Rabel said...

You'll notice that the name (and theme) of the offending restaurant is very difficult to find.

There's a reason for that.

It makes the offendee look even stupider.

Coal mining IS the theme. It's primary feature food is the pasty that British coal miners carried to work. It has a coal miner in its logo hanging by the front door. It has pictures of dirty coal miners all over the walls.

Earnest Prole said...

It’s a version of Spike Lee’s great Do the Right Thing.

Ann Althouse said...

"Recall the use of the word "niggardly" in DC several years ago and subsequent kerfuffle. It's too late for our society."

Yes, that's a good example. Knowing how it can be misread, I would never use the word, and I think everyone should just quit using that word to avoid confusing people — once they've heard of the problem. I used to use the word "snigger," and I guess I never used it again after someone mentioned that it could upset some people.

I wouldn't write the column this person wrote, and I wouldn't have even spoken to the restauranteur. I'm just saying that it's a charitable act to notice what can be misunderstood and to remove obstacles that unsophisticated people might stumble over.

AZ Bob said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gahrie said...

I think this guy is trolling everyone to see just how much people are dominated by tbe SJW brigades.

I disagree. I think he's member of those brigades and was trying to exert power.

Like tbe professor who slipped a chapter of Mein Kampf past Peer Review to show how deep the rot had gotten.

You mean the one that's about to lose his job as punishment?

AZ Bob said...

Rabel, could you name this restaurant. The fact that they serve pasties is an essential fact that was omitted by Mr. Thomas who is engaging in fake news.

Earnest Prole said...

If the stupid and the malevolent now have a veto over our culture, we’re fucked.

Ann Althouse said...

"Althouse opens a restaurant. The walls are grey and blank less something on them offend someone. Each race is represented in the staff so no one thinks this establishment caters to one race or another. There is no food because she does not want to be accused of cultural appropriation since most dishes are derived from the culinary arts of many different cultures. There are no tables and no chairs since that might offend the differently abled. No spirits are served because that might offend someone religious. So what is the point of the place again?"

You assume a restaurant has to have pictures of people on the walls. When I think of restaurant interiors I've liked, I don't think many of them had pictures of people, and there really is a danger that if you put up pictures of people, you're implying that these are the kind of people I want in the restaurant. That's not great for the general mood. If you put up smiling people, you're going to get some customers thinking, what are they smiling about? It can be irritating or depressing to some people. But pictures of glum people are going to feel off-putting to at least some people. A display of racial diversity isn't going to please everyone. I personally find it phony and embarrassing. Pictures that lack racial diversity are going to cause some people to think this place has an old-fashioned "white privilege" vibe.

Just forget about pictures of people. The faces of people are your customers. You want great faces there in person. Good luck with your restaurant! Mine would have abstract art or pictures of food or landscapes.

gahrie said...

Yes, that's a good example. Knowing how it can be misread, I would never use the word, and I think everyone should just quit using that word to avoid confusing people — once they've heard of the problem. I used to use the word "snigger," and I guess I never used it again after someone mentioned that it could upset some people.

Why in the wide wide world of sports would you support the heckler's veto? Especially when it's rooted in ignorance? It just encourages people to be the heckler. Why not educate the ignorantly offended instead?

Does the Spanish language need to come up with a new word for "black"?

I'm just saying that it's a charitable act to notice what can be misunderstood and to remove obstacles that unsophisticated people might stumble over.

Why is this "charity" of yours only a one way street? Why is it always the Right being ask to show charity to the Left? How about Gay couple showing a little charity towards people who don't want to participate in their "weddings"?

Professional lady said...

There's being charitable - that is giving people the benefit of the doubt and there's being condescending - concluding that people are too stupid to grasp a concept. How sophisticated do you have to be to grasp the concept that coal miners got very very dirty from coal dust?

Original Mike said...

"I'm just saying that it's a charitable act to notice what can be misunderstood and to remove obstacles that unsophisticated people might stumble over."

And, you, an educator!

BUMBLE BEE said...

I looked at the picture after reading the headline and said to myself "who the f*ck is triggered by a picture of coal miners?". Then I read the story and I see an attention whore who's work isn't generating any attention. Outrage/racism has become an end in itself.

Anonymous said...

AA: I'm just saying that it's a charitable act to notice what can be misunderstood and to remove obstacles that unsophisticated people might stumble over.

"Unsophisticated people".

So that's what they're calling them now.

Rabel said...

It appears to be the Cornish Pasty. If it's not then the offended artist should go there for a drink so that he can be offended all over again.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Hey, on second thought they might be chimney sweeps!

Rabel said...

It's a somewhat well-known photo. You can get a copy through the Althouse Amazon portal.

Right here.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I snigger in your general direction, niggard.

Dude1394 said...

“But if it were my restaurant, I wouldn't put up a photograph that was subject to this misperception”

Silly.. first there is no way this photo should be open to misinterpretation except to people who have never worked with their hands before. And secondly you would not know WHAT is going to set off a snowflake until it does. Their sensibilities are ever changing to promote their political power.

Ann Althouse said...

There, I made the "blackface" tag retroactive. There are 32 posts in the archive. Nice to see all the old things. Remember when Joe Lieberman was depicted in blackface?

n.n said...

Black face? Yes. Coal dust. The problem is a communications breakdown. The observers should ask, rather than presume based on closely held prejudices.

buwaya said...

"When I think of restaurant interiors I've liked, I don't think many of them had pictures of people, and there really is a danger that if you put up pictures of people, you're implying that these are the kind of people I want in the restaurant. That's not great for the general mood."

There are places that have no pictures of people. Truly authentic Muslim-Arab-Turkish-Middle Eastern places in general for instance, though if they are Arab Christians they always do have pictures of people, in my experience. Its a thing. Or not - our favorite coffee shop in San Francisco was a Muslim-Arab place covered in Mexican art, including several portraits of Frida Kahlo. Go figure.

Indian places often have pictures of Gods somewhere, usually around the cashiers station, typically Ganesh. Chinese places likewise have a "laughing Buddha", though its not the Buddha Buddha, but an ancient monk that went by the name Budai. If not that, one of the Chinese Gods.

My favorite place would be covered in bullfight posters. But that may lead to other sorts of complaint, at least in the US.

n.n said...

There is also red face, which is why light-skinned people should be covered from head to toe in the sun, on the snow, under the uv lights. Green face, which is why people should be careful of what they eat. Purple face, which is why we should carefully avoid choking and holds. Color progression, color diffusion, and so on and so forth. The truth to power statement in this context is that white men should not be coal miners, or at least have the decency to wear a hood while working.

Earnest Prole said...

The plot of Spike Lee’s masterful 1989 film Do the Right Thing, cribbed quickly from the interwebs:

On the hottest day of the year on a street in Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence. A white Italian-American owns a family pizzeria in a black neighborhood. A black customer becomes upset when he sees the pizzeria's photo wall exhibits only Italian actors. He believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors. The owner disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise. By the end of the movie (spoiler alert) a black man is murdered by police and the pizzeria is destroyed by a mob. The movie concludes with two quotations expressing opposing views on violence, one from Martin Luther King and one from Malcolm X.

buwaya said...

Anything could be open to misperception.

Imagine a neurotic fat person, in a Chinese restaurant, confronted by a happy Buddha statue, which is always fat to some degree. Of course it is natural, is it not, for such a person, in these corrupt times, to perceive mockery?

MikeD said...

If it were my restaurant I'd tell him to pound sand!

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