Police Violence towards Black Lives

An issue that is often addressed by artists and activists our violence towards unarmored African Americans. From the death of Trayvon Martin's and many others. So many artists and activist became part of the movement to protest police contact.  Towards unarmored African Americans who barley does anything but end up getting shot for no reason and ending up dead.

Nikkolas Smith had created a photo of Martin Luther King Jr wearing a hoodie over his head. Nikkolas had created this photo do to the death of Trayvon Martin. Nikkolas very straight forward trying to show that anybody who under a hoodie is not a criminal. According to Nikkolas “when he visually interprets these events, there’s a bittersweet sense of reluctant sadness and gratifying accomplishment. My goal of sparking thought and action through art was realized but it comes at a tragically high price.” If Martin Luther King Jr was under the hoodie then Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman would pay bigger price because Martin Luther King Jr was important. The message Nikkolas was trying to show us that average African American person who unarmed get killed is not important, but a famous or important African American get killed its important.

Carson Ellis art work piece called “Killed by Police” show African American women and males with a face and their names under their heads. At the end of the art piece she had put in words that “20 unarmed men, women, and children of color killed by law enforcement since 2012”.  She inspired to do her piece because of a judge decision on case and she had did reach on the people who were killed by police unarmored.   In the Seeing Power book Thompson explain “seeing power is a form of reading an infrastructure or in more simple terms, a context.”  With Ellis piece she get out the message in simple terms by show color face people who were killed by law enforcement, and include unarmored in the text.  

Dareece Walker had created a self-portrait called “Made in the USA” of himself with his hands up, hands on the wall, and face towards the wall. On his back, he had a tattoo of American Flag with text that said “Made in the USA”. The image he draws of himself was created on a piece of cardboard. In Seeing Power we “Finding commonalities is absolutely crucial in order to attract curiosity.” We see the image and know what it is represents towards us when he have his hands up and facing the wall. Walker explains   “I am made in the USA but somehow I’m not treated as a full American. I’m treated as a black American, like cardboard, disposable, easily replaced”. His message he was trying show us that African Americans our treated like nothing in the US by police officer.

All three of the artist were amazing in their own different ways. They all address the issue with law enforcement towards African American or people of color. The three artistes had showed us different message about their piece they had created. Each one of the art piece had different meanings like not important, unarmed, colored, and treated like trash.

Work Cited

The Washington Post. (2016). The most powerful art from the #BlackLivesMatter movement, three years in.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/07/13/the-most-powerful-art-from-the-blacklivesmatter-movement-three-years-in/?utm_term=.50b61c52cc11