Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: A billboard reading “There Are Black People in the Future” was removed from a building in East Liberty because it violated a lease agreement prohibiting “distasteful, offensive, erotic, political…” content, said the building’s landlord, also noting that the tenant did not secure approval for the sign prior to posting it as required by the lease.
2 comments:
All Ms. Picker is doing is covering her ass. This is a clear case of white washing the problem. If she really supports Diversity and ext. she would have ignored the comments of disapproval. To be against this post is to believe that there should not be black people here in the future. This post should have been a bacon of hope for black people in the community that the community is accepting enough to allow a statement like this to be posted. The fact that we need to have community meeting on are, (number one) let alone the topic of the future of black people in this community tells a very important and scary story. Its also crazy that this statement is causing such a crazy dilemma. Like, of course we black people will be here in the future! Right?!!!! Was there a master plan to kill all the black people between now and the future? So why dose saying something we all already know, offend so many people. It is thrilling, in a horrifying way, to know that all we have to do to shake the older white community is remind them that black people aren’t going away any time soon, so they better get use to it. This reflects the reaction to the groups that said ‘all lives matter’. This art installation did not say ‘there are no white people in the future’. So calm down, everyone needs to just calm down and embrace the inevitable. And I would remind all white people who opposed this message to remember how audacious their people were in their past, saying the racist things they have said and now one batten an eye. We deserve to have the same pride, and we can and have been doing so, with messages like these, and still having respect to other culture. This is something that everyone in this world should be doing now. Being prideful of who you are and where you come from yet still be respectful should be the normal thing to do now.
Rubin really hit the nail on the head when he said “I find it tragically ironic, given East Liberty’s history and recent gentrification, that a text by an African American artist affirming a place in the future for black people is seen as unacceptable in the present.” This is a tricky situation, as the artist did not ask permission to post the installation, but the real issue is that people are opposed to the piece being there at all. Yes, this is a political piece. Obviously. But it is also just a factual statement. Though it has a deeper meaning, it is just a true fact. And if someone is offended by this statement, that means that they disagree, that there is not a place for Black people in the future to be in power, to exist, and to be a part of communities without fear, harm, and prejudice. This reminds me of the Netflix Original, Dear White People, wherein the main character hacks an infamously white and racist fraternity’s Facebook sends out an invite for a blackface party, just to see if people would go. The party was a hit, proving Sam’s suspicions of the college’s culture. This piece was not erected with the same aim, but exposed a similar mentality nonetheless.
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