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Art
show ad insensitive
The advertisement for the Graphic Design
Junior Show at Cal State Long Beach with
a picture of a noose and the phrase “Our
first hang,” has sparked a great deal of
controversy recently as can be seen by various
letters to the editor focusing on the topic.
On Thursday, the On-line Forty-Niner ran
a letter to the editor from Harold Fisher
of the African Student Union. In his letter,
Fisher expressed his outrage concerning
the usage of the noose on the advertisement
and demanded that an apology be issued to
all African-Americans and African-American
organizations at CSULB.
While Fisher’s requests may be a bit extreme,
the reasons for his being offended are understandable.
As he also mentioned in the letter, the
noose is a symbol of terrorism that has
negatively affected African-Americans and
many other people throughout history.
The poster with the noose is a powerful,
head-turning advertisement that does its
job well by attracting people’s attention.
And the play on the word “hang” to go along
with the image is very creative. However,
what must be taken into account is the reason
why the noose is such a powerful symbol.
The noose was used to lynch people in the
past. Many of those people were African-Americans.
Hence, often times, when one sees a noose,
one thinks about the murder of innocent
victims. For this reason the noose is a
powerful symbol — of hate.
It can be said that the Graphic Design Junior
Show advertisement capitalized upon, and
thus exploited the power behind, the symbol
of the noose causing the poster to be insensitive
and in bad taste.
While no one is debating the fact that the
use of the noose in the advertisement was
well within the artists’ rights, what is
arguable is the question of whether any
consideration was given to how the usage
of the symbol might affect people.
CSULB prides itself in the diversity and
multi-cultural background of its many students.
For this reason the students and faculty
involved with the creation of this advertisement
should have examined their poster more closely.
It appears as though the creators were either
oblivious to or completely disregarded how
their advertisement might negatively affect
people.
Tanya Cummings, the professor of the graphic
design class, said she never meant the advertisement
to be hurtful and that she “regrets the
way that the poster was perceived,” according
to an article in Monday’s Forty-Niner. Cummings
did not apologize for the image, however
she did agree to remove the posters.
This action may or may not be the end of
the controversy. But we hope that those
people who were offended by the image of
the noose are satisfied with the decision
to remove the insensitive posters.
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