Today is Martian Luther King Jr. Day and I would hope people take some time thinking about what he did and how to carry on his legacy. However, I think that may be asking too much, evidence my university has an “art” display “honoring” MLK however I couldn’t get through the whole thing without getting infuriated.
The display is a bunch of posters set up in a seating area where they usually display art. First off as I went from poster to poster reading them I was stuck at how superficial, political correct and cliched they were, here is one about Rosa Parkers, here one about MLKs great speech. I could imagine these hanging in any high school, middle school or even elementary school they were that basic and uninspired, at least I could if it was not for the really infuriating parts.
Half the posters I saw had their little Black History blurb and then followed by something about the university example: Rosa Parks blurb followed by some along the lines of here “at University X students of all races can use public transport together”. Here is where I really started to raise an eyebrow. It felt like it was taking MLK as a chance for the university to promote itself and it felt all sorts of wrong, however I thought maybe I’m just being too sensitive. Then I came to the next one and it had the same structure with an added detail that removed all doubt from my mind what this was; blurb about race segregated dinners followed by …”can eat together at the University’s Chili’s” complete with a nice big picture of the University’s Chili’s on it.
O FUCK NO!!!
At that point I walked away. One thing I hate about my university is how corporatized it is becoming. I feared what effects this would have on the place but this was worse that I expected. This should be a place people go to learn, to have their views challenged and instead, what is hanging on the wall? A Chill’s advertisement wrapped in the guise of art and history. Is this what I am paying for? Is this what higher education should be? Is this what passes as remembrance now? Is this how we feel civil rights leaders should remembered? Is this what a major university believes is best way to carry on MLK’s vision by encouraging us to stuff our faces with Big Mouth Burger Bites?
No related posts.
