My homie Sherine sent this to me in a Facebook message, and I had to take notice. If you happened to be in Times Square recently, you may have seen a mural emblazoned on the side of some awning-laced building. The mural depicts numerous Black and Hispanic women in various stages of undress, adorned with long nails and the Nuyorican style so prevalent in the Bronx (my hometown), and the rest of New York City. As beautiful as the work is, it's drawing stark criticism for it's portrayal of women as 'ghetto'...
Now, I, for one, take my etymology very seriously. By that virtue, I felt it necessary to look up and properly define the word 'ghetto'.
via Dictionary.com: ghetto - a section of a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group
That's a noun... A noun that's been transformed into an adjective describing anything negative or degenerate originating from the area defined above. That said, is the mural 'ghetto'? In fact, is the mural portraying something negative? Honestly, I'd say no. The Nuyorican culture in NYC is one that's oft referenced in hip-hop and poetry. While the portrayal may seem crude and sexist to an outsider (which most of the people in Times Square seeing the mural are), to the average New Yorker, the mural is synonymous with an aspect of New York culture. The person saying that the women should be carrying 'briefcases' seems to have a ridiculously limited scope of what constitutes a 'positive' portrayal of women. The placement may be misguided, but the art itself is beautiful. That's neither here nor there, though. Readers, what do you think about the mural?? Is it 'ghetto' or are the critics ignoring the rich Nuyorican culture and history? PLEASE, chime in in the comments section below, and let me know what you think. This is the new and improved Census...
1 comments:
I see where your coming from but let me sound off on this for a second. Being that I'm not latino I wont speak for them or how they should feel but as a black person here's the thing. This country's history is steeped in an anti-black aesthetic. Race affects CLASS, POWER, and progress in America. This HAS ALOT TO DO WITH DISCRIMINATION. The opportunities blacks have or dont have has much to do with image. Being portrayed in a bad light for hundreds of yrs has hindered are progression in this country. Now I for one am with you in regards to embracing culture in all facets. But because the masses take tv movies articles stories and paintings to be literal portrayal of the black experience things get tricky and hostile. Im not saying that the nuyorican style is ghetto or something to be scoffed at. But you must understand as an educated black man yourself that breaking these stereotypes and just wanting to have the opportunity to be human without being anything extra is a tiring task, and murals like that one doesn't help our situation. what do you think?
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