Group takes claim for UC Berkeley lynching effigies
An anonymous Bay Area group is taking credit for the racially-charged effigies hung from nooses at UC Berkeley this weekend, saying they were meant to be provocative art pieces.
“For those who think these images depict crimes and attitudes too distasteful to be seen — we respectfully disagree. Our society must never forget,” said a typed, three-paragraph statement.
This would seem to clarify some of the speculation about the intent behind the display. It appears to be people who wish to link present day police killings to the lynchings of the past.
Pablo Gonzalez, a visiting research fellow at the university, said he was given the claim of responsibility by a student who found the message tacked to a bulletin board.
The group claiming responsibility, in the statement, described itself as a “collective of queer and POC (people of color) artists responsible for the images of historical lynchings posted to several locations in Berkeley and Oakland.”
In the message, the group said it sought to bring historical context to recent controversy over the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y. The group apologized to black people who were offended by its work.
The group said it was choosing to remain anonymous because “this is not about us as artists.”
While I certainly do not find it a stretch to link the deaths of people like Michael Brown and Eric Garner, to the thousands of lynching victims in US history, I have questions about this particular approach to doing it.