Yes, the title is click bait but I couldn’t resist. But it is pretty much true except the miners were not physically present, but rather depicted in an old photograph of the long since departed miners swilling beer in a pub. Or is that really what it shows? One man in Arizona sees things differently. VERY differently.
Via AZ Central, Rashaad Thomas, opinion contributor
Phoenix restaurant says this is a photo of coal miners. But I see offensive blackface
A few weeks ago, I attended a holiday party at a downtown Phoenix restaurant. I walked around to view the photographs on the wall.
Then a photograph caught my attention.
Friends said, “It’s coal miners at a pub after work.” It was a photograph of coal miners with blackened faces. I asked a Latinx and white woman for their opinion. They said it looked like coal miners at a pub after work. Then they stepped back, frowned and said it’s men in blackface.
Uh uh. When someone says “Latinx” you know they’re a whiny snowflake. And that’s exactly what we have here. Unsatisfied with the initial (and correct) responses he received he had to keep asking until he found someone to co-sign his bullshit. My guess is that the two people who allegedly finally agreed with this clown only did so after they realized this imbecile was getting his panties in a bunch over this picture. Maybe a tear trickled down his face. Maybe they saw his lower lip beginning to quiver.
I asked the waitress to speak with a manager. Instead, I spoke with a white restaurant owner. I explained to him why the photograph was offensive. Evidently, someone else had made a similar comment about the photograph before.
Yet, the photograph remained on the wall. He said he would talk to the other owners and get back to me. While leaving, I asked him had he spoke with the other owners. He had not spoken with them, but mentioned Google said it’s coal miners after work.
It IS coal miners after work in a pub and it SHOULD remain on the wall. Just because two mentally challenged crybabies were offended by it out of the countless other well-adjusted customers who have no doubt also seen it and just accepted it for what it is, is no reason to remove it. But as always, liberal social justice warrior policy requires that the many bow to the ridiculous demands of the mentally soft few.
Who determines what’s offensive?
You, apparently. And I’ll bet there isn’t much in this world that you AREN’T offended by, puss cake.
For me, the coal miners disappeared and a film honored for its artistic merit, despite being the most racist propaganda films ever, D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” (1915) surfaces, in which white actors appeared in blackface. The white owner saw coal miners in the photograph. Therefore, it was not offensive.
“The coal miners disappeared . . . ” Then you are mentally disturbed and should seek help.
Fact: The photograph shows coal miners’ faces covered in soot. The context of the photograph is not the issue.
Like I said, this guy is a nut case! He just pointed out that the photo is indeed just coal miners, like he’s trying to pull himself back into reality but he spins out and slips back into the world of his delusions once more.
Now prepare yourselves. Rashaad is about to go off on a tangent . . .
Students have painted their faces black at the Arizona State University Sun Devils’ Blackout football game. During Halloween people are encouraged not to wear blackface. Phoenix Institution of Contemporary Art showcased Bob Carey’s portrait of himself in blackface.
Art can be a trickster. People view artwork once and subsequently see something different.
This is not a photograph that is up for interpretation, you moron! It’s not a Picasso! It’s just a damned historical photograph!
Viewers cannot determine the intention of an artist’s work.
Ah, but you can? That seems to be exactly what you’re doing.
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.
Frequently, I enter art galleries and I am not represented in the art, which leads to uneducated curation for exhibitions.
What?
While shopping I am ignored because it is assumed I unable to purchase anything, or I am followed by a security guard because it is assumed that I am a threat to the store.
Ignored at stores, followed by security . . . that sounds so familiar to me. Because it happens to me too, jerk off! No, not because of my skin color, but because my hair is about the same length as yours. Try getting a haircut, dress respectably, and I bet the kind treatment you describe diminishes greatly. Or keep your hair long and quit your damned bitching!
Each assumption is based on a stereotype. Blackface caricatures stereotypes of black people.
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.
You were ignored because you’re totally out of your mind.
A business’ photograph of men with blackened faces culturally says to me, “Whites Only.” It says people like me are not welcome.
The paranoia is strong with this one. Whites only, huh? So why were you allowed in the establishment in the first place? And were you treated with hostility while you were there? I mean other than that mean ol’ owner that didn’t take the picture down. My God, what an abominable man he was, I mean not immediately acquiescing to one mentally disturbed snowflake’s irrational request.
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.
The “greater good” of one, allegedly two people who saw something in a photograph that isn’t there.
Rashaad, there is racism in the world. But people like you shouting racism over things like this where it doesn’t exist only serves to render that word absolutely meaningless.
