Black effigies hanged on Berkeley campus spur debate

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

BERKELEY, Calif. – Effigies of black lynching victims found hanging on a Northern California college campus have sparked debate over whether the images are powerful protest art or just plain tasteless and racist.

 

The photographic images were found Saturday morning hanging at two prominent spots on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. They were discovered a few hours before a demonstration against police brutality organized by a black student union was to start. Police are investigating, but officials say they still don't know who hanged the images or the motivation.

 

"It's unclear if this is racially motivated effort or an effort at something else," campus spokeswoman Claire Holmes said.

 

Social media sites hosted debates between those who viewed the effigies as art and those offended by the images.

 

Berkeley Pastor Michael McBride told the Oakland Tribune that he sees no redeeming quality to the display.

 

"This is racial terror they are experiencing," said McBride, who is also co-director of Intervarsity's Black Campus Ministries at UC Berkeley. "I don't care if it was a white person, a black person, a blue person, if it was an adversary or ally, these images strewed across campus have terrorized my students."

 

Others, however, said the effigies may have been a form of "guerrilla art" and that images of lynching victims have been used by artists in the past. The rap group Public Enemy used a photograph of two lynching victims on the cover the single "Hazy Shade of Criminal" released in 1992.

________

 

Right, because the first thing that comes to mind when seeing a black effigy is that it's a powerful artistic statement...

 

[Valin]

 

"It's unclear if this is racially motivated effort or an effort at something else," campus spokeswoman Claire Holmes said.

 

 

Got a Twenty Dollar Bill that says it will be someone from The Left.

 

We've all seen this movie before

[SrWoodchuck]

Who doesn't like a good wall hanging? It must be aesthetic, with proper composition. I'd have to agree with @Valin on this one.

 

Cardboard? Puh-leeease!

 

Were the knots tidy? Uh-huh....I thought so.

 

It has to be a young pretentious prog.