Brian you should be ashamed to post something so racist on this site. As an African American you offend me dearly. I hope you use better judgement in the future.

Hi Ashleigh,

I understand your perspective and certainly thought twice before putting these images up, but they are symptoms of a brand of political humor that is growing quite prevalent now, and one can't simply look the other way. I also see it as an indictment more of Rice than anything else -- the fact that the first poster uses English slang doesn't mean that it's knocking the English by any means.

And no one to my knowledge is really talking about the divide in attitudes regarding this war as they work along race lines -- I'd love to have some discussion of that, or at least knowledge of the figures, and of the art (since this site is more art than poli-sci oriented). This poster is the first expression of any sort that I've come across in my browsing of there being any possible difference in attitudes along lines of ethnicity here. It's not the best way to foreground the issue, but there you go.

We don't know that an African American artist didn't in fact create this image/poster -- certainly the new Chris Rock film would suggest that it is well possible an African American comedian could be so brash. I can't even guess, this could have been by an African Canadian (the Canadians seem to be bolder in the digs they take at US hypocrisies and/or open wounds).

In any case, I'm apologize if this poster is offensive, and if you think I'm arguing a losing position here let me know. Race, economics and the web is itself a vexed issue -- it's often brushed over in favor of the idea that players on the web are cyborgs and have no ethnic identity, but that's bs.

Brian

I suppose that African Americans should not be a part of the governance of the United States, or else they will be indicted for not being for blacky, i.e. the Democratic party, shills for the ‘sympathizers’, etc. while there are greater icons to emulate and admire, such as our professional sport, comedic, thespian entertainers. I don’t believe that these impudent sloganistic images were posted to grate ethnic sensibility, but obviously, it hits a mark, the circumference of which is surrounded by a great divide. White feminists want to golf where men do, while black women are consistently denigrated as… African Americans compose a disproportionate ratio of the people serving the US in the armed services most likely due to our system of education, ghettoization of black communities, employment processes... whatever the cause, our prison system has hit the 2 million mark and as with the military, the ration of white to black does not reflect the actual ratio of balck/white of our population We consistently blackball the Other. In the end, it doesn’t matter if the “artist” was black skinned or not, the stupidity is readily apparent, the missing of the wounded point, the emotional reaction to serve an inobvious end. I begin to understand the point of this log the more I read, the more I look at the reactions, and this is what sirarras punctuated with his remarks upon this medium as well as the nature of this forum. I don’t see it maintaining an obvious slate, for which I’m thankful. Though again, I would like to stress that this war is over and how we may shape the aftermath is still within our capabilities to sculpt. Syria, Iran, Korea are on the agenda because of the success of the Iraq war and the opposition to violence should not be limited to what is already past. We may also anticipate another Bush cabinet in 2004 which will not be toppled by dog shit flags and stilt walkers on the streets. I am personally for the immediate reconfiguration of the geopolitic, but it is becoming more difficult to stomach when the numbers have faces.

very interesting!