2 posts tagged “graffiti”
This little sign inside the Kirby Starbucks got me thinking about all the Red team's political speechifying and how it refers to people by only their first name and their day job title as presumed last name. What are we now? A legion of the "guy you call when your toilet backs up" and nothing else? I find it manipulative, condescending, and idiotic. I do not know about where you live, but here in El Paso we call each other the normal way, like Jose, Rosie, Chuy, Maria, Susan, Mark, and Rita.
People in their daily lives do not refer to one another as Jose the Barista, Rosie the nurse, Chuy the CPA, Maria the teacher, Susan the lawyer, Mark the restaurateur, and Rita the piano teacher. It would take forever to have a simple conversation. People! It is not normal. It is condescending. And while I know it's just political speak, those people need to understand that our identities are not exclusively tied to how we make money--It is only the portion that allows us to do what we really like--painting, writing, Freestyle and croquet playing, and even talking to our friends.
If the Republican Party can only see us as moneymaking robots, concerned with only coin, then they do not see us as individuals with souls, families, lovers, children, and interests outside the act of earning a buck. Instead, they see us as easily frightened rabbits—afraid of change, ready to follow orders, ready for them to make our decisions for us. Moreover, if we as a country elect someone who thinks of us in this manner, then I guess we will get what we deserve. To but monetize us, see nothing but dollar bills standing at the ready to pay for their past recklessness, hubris, and failed domestic and foreign policies, is perhaps the saddest thing that I will take from this election season. And it was done before. It was called U.S.S.R.
I am glad all the speeches begging and scaring us for votes ends tomorrow. Because I want and need change, which I hope we get soon. Like tomorrow night.
I'm beginning research for a seminar paper on multi-cultural linguistic issues in the classroom. While not in the classroom per se, my topic is along the lines of viz.alt.dis: How resistance cultures communicate in public spaces.
This afternoon was most fruitful for locating sources and forms of resistance; many I was previously unaware.
One of the most interesting is the stencil project inspired by Picasso's anti-war masterpiece, Guernica, which I found on John T. Unger Studio Blog. John writes that John Emerson was"Inspired by Visual Resistance and the American Guernica Project" and that "Emerson is offering .pdf downloads of stencils he created based on Picasso's ." Unfortunately, the Vox blog interface does not allow linking to Flickr images that are not mine. While this hinders my illustrating blog entries, it insures I cannot take another's image without their permission. However, here is a link to Visual Resistance's stencil project for the Whitney Biennial 2006 Exhibition.
