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NAM Round Table
The NAM Round Table consists of news, insights, visions, ramblings and rants from the writers at New America Media.
Ever since NAM posted my commentary on the Lovelle Mixon saga in Oakland, along with the graphic I collaborated on with Arturo Tejeda—Art Director at NAM—I’ve been taken aback by the viral response to the graphic in particular. Most folks asked: “What does it mean? What are you trying to say?” Others threatened us with bodily harm. The problem people seem to have with the piece is that it riffs on the iconic graphic of Obama that Shepard Fairey created. As artists we were trying to provoke thought and raise questions. Lovelle Mixon is a product of this society, just like our current president. People have lionized and deified Obama to the point where taking his name or image (or interpolating an image associated with him) in vain—in a way that is counterintuitive—is tantamount to dipping a picture of Jesus Christ in a bucket of piss. Obama=Jesus. People are going to demonize Lovelle Mixon for what he did. In this society’s eyes he was a rapist, a thug, a murderer, a cop killer. He was all of those things. What Mixon wasn’t, even before he committed these brutal murders, was a human being. No one—and I mean no one—gives a fuck about the Lovelle Mixons of he world. If he died at the hands of another black man (which is the case for most murders of black men) there would have been barely a blip on the radar screen. Because he was a convicted felon—constitutionally he was a slave (read the 14th and 15th amendments carefully). That he died, taking four cops with him, makes him an infamous legend. That legend deserves a visual treatment that forces people to think about fame, infamy, deities and demons. There are people who love Obama, but hate Black people. When you look at Obama you don’t see the Lovelle Mixons of the world. But they both are “black men.” The issue of black on black violence, police brutality—violence in urban areas in general—was off the radar screen in the political debate this last election, even though it was the number one issue of concern for black people before the economy nosedived. The truth is, the black president can’t deal with our black problems, he has AIG and Afghanistan to wrestle with. So, it was ironic to me that this tragedy happened even as “hope” and “change” are mantras that slid Obama into the White House. What no one has hoped to change in at least 400 years is the idea that poor negroes in America are treated like chattel (historically by the justice system, the police and their predecessors plantation overseers and militias), but the ones society loves transcend their ethnicity and become superheroes—they are worshiped. The graphic was intended to raise these issues, not answer them. comments |
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People are too afraid to look at this incident outside of the vacum. If lovelle is a monster everyone can sleep at night knowing that it was an isolated incident. But what if it isn’t? What if another lovelle is being created in detroit or St louis or any other war zone/inner city that we as society allow to develop? Wake up people this world ain’t right and we all have blood on are hands
By Brian everett · Posted on Mar 24, 09:05 PMSorry, I’ve tried but I don’t follow the logic of the art or the writing.
And you can’t blame society for what Mixon did. Countless other people face his same circumstances, but he chose to murder 4 innocent men. He alone has to shoulder that responsibility.
By sly · Posted on Mar 25, 12:15 AMthe cops should go into that neighborhood and start rounding up the rest of the niggers
By dave · Posted on Mar 25, 10:16 AMI just got laid off for the third time in two years, and I’m collecting unemployment for the second time in two years, and the county I live in has a 20% unemployment rate. I think I’ll go out and commit a series of violent sexual assaults that culminate in a running gun battle wherein I, and as many others as possible, die in a hail of lead. Nah – changed my mind. I think I’ll try to get yet another job and keep voting for competent, honest politicians instead.
By plepgeat · Posted on Mar 25, 03:41 PMWho would you rather leave your 12 year old daughter with? Sarah Palin or Lovelle Mixon?
By El Davido · Posted on Mar 25, 05:31 PMWhile I don’t agree with Obama’s politics, I find him to be a very respectable man. He’s a hard worker who took advantage of the opportunities to get an education in this country. He made something of himself and does things to help his community. To take an iconic image of him and deface it with the mug shot of a common criminal that lacked ambition and only hurt his community is a true shame.
By joebloe · Posted on Mar 26, 12:08 AMI DONT THINK ANYONE WHO’S NOT BLACK CAN RELATE 2 LOVELLE..HE WAS MY COUSIN N NO WHITE PERSON HAS BEEN ANYWHERE NEAR..BEING IN THE SHOES OF A BLACK MAN..WHITES WILL GET OFF MURDER CHARGE WITH 4 2 10 YEARS..A BLACK MAN ITS LIFE JUS 4 ATTEMPTED..YEA BLACKS MITE B A LIL CRAZY BUT WHITES BROUGHT US HEAR SO DONT GET MAD AT BLACKS GET MAD AT YA GREAT GREAT GRANPA’S..WHITES ARE THE ONE WHO’S ALWAYS ARRESTED 4 RAPE 2 THERE OWN KIN..SHOOTIN THER JOBS UP WEN THER FIRED AN OTHA CRAZY ASS THINGS..SO GET IT RIGHT CUS LOVELLE ONLY DID WAS MOST BLACKS WANT 2 DO..BT WE RESPECT YAW WORLD CUS YAW FORCED US IN IT..PERIOD
By rtf · Posted on Mar 26, 02:23 PMI have to agree with Sly, our society is not to blame – we all make choices. My husband grew up in the projects with a dead-beat, heroin- addict father who left them when he was about 4 years young. Multiple times he witnessed his father drug-dealing and as a result of it and his mom’s protest s, him abusing her repeatedly and violently. My spouse now holds BA from Stanford University and MBA from SFSU. He works for a non-profit organization in East Palo Alto helping disadvantaged with building and developing entrepreneurial skills and how to become successful business owners. I and many who know him consider my husband a COMPLETE SUCCESS. I won’t agree that the ghetto can’t produce good people; it is our choice what we do with our lives no matter where we live. People do make mistakes, it is only human. Some choose to pay for their mistakes and move on to become equal citizens, others – chose to not conform, and we all have to pay for their decisions unfortunately. Some of us with our lives, others with sorrow and fear… It is sad.
By Mila · Posted on Mar 26, 03:01 PMI was a paramedic in Oakland for 16 years during the height of the drug wars of the late ‘80s and I saw violence on a huge scale during my time there.
I’m actually studying human rights as well as other larger questions of the world in graduate school. There is obviously no easy answer here. I’m having a lot of emotions about this tragic event. Personally, I can’t feel sorry for someone who chose to take another life especially four who were sworn to protect the community with theirs.
While Lovelle was the product of institutionalized racism and structural violence, that does not excuse the fact that he CHOSE to take the action of shooting and killing those four officers, all of whom I have worked along side at one time or another. We ALL have choices, albeit sometimes not easy ones or choices that seem like choices, but CHOICES nonetheless. The fact that some members of the community were CELEBRATING the deaths of these four officers that night I find disgusting beyond words.
To bring Obama into this conversation is I think inappropriate. He is a beam of light to a nation where ALL of it’s citizens have been taken advantage by the former residents of 1600 Pennsylvania.
CHANGE is what we need in this community, as well as ths nation and indeed the rest of the world, but it is going to take time, and there will be setbacks. So, let us bury our dead and honor the memory of those who mattered most to us and reflect on what each of us individually can do to turn the violence around.
By Dave · Posted on Mar 26, 04:27 PMI was a paramedic in Oakland for 16 years beginning during the height of the drug wars of the late ‘80s and I saw violence on a huge scale during my time there.
I’m studying human rights as well as other larger questions of the world in graduate school. There is obviously no easy answer here. I’m having a lot of emotions about this tragic event. Personally, I can’t feel sorry for someone who chose to take another life especially FOUR who were sworn to protect the community with theirs.
While Lovelle was the product of institutionalized racism and structural violence, that does not excuse the fact that he CHOSE to take the action of shooting and killing those four officers, all of whom I have worked along side at one time or another. We ALL have choices, albeit sometimes not easy ones or choices that seem like choices, but CHOICES nonetheless. The fact that some members of the community were CELEBRATING the deaths of these four officers that night I find disgusting beyond words.
To bring Obama into this conversation is I think inappropriate. He is a beam of light to a nation where ALL of it’s citizens have been taken advantage by the former residents of 1600 Pennsylvania. Change is what we need in this community, as well as this nation and indeed the rest of the world, but it is going to take time, and there will be setbacks. So, let us bury our dead and honor the memory of those who mattered most to us and reflect on what each of us individually can do to turn the violence around.
By Dave · Posted on Mar 26, 04:42 PM