Justin Arena
CAS 100

Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations
Damali Ayo, an emerging speaker, author, and artist has dedicated her life to bettering society in issues especially tied to race and ethnicity. Her form of “Now Art” is not of a conventional style; rather it is one that generates conversation and dialogue regarding many of the worlds troubling social issues. In one of her famous pieces called “Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations,” Ayo sits on the street corners of New York City and Portland and begs for slavery reparations. In essence, she is taking money straight from the wallets of white citizens and delivering it into the hands of black citizens as the pass by on the street. While Ayo believes her actions are completely reasonable, many of the public reactions show otherwise.
Dressed like a homeless street bum equipped with a tin can labeled “reparations” with an American flag on it and a sign that says “reparations accepted HERE,” Damali Ayo is on a mission to disrupt society and raise questions and discussion about slavery. Around her neck is a sign that reads “200 years of slavery,” which is the only hint she gives for what the reparations are for. As she sits on the street corner jingling her can, people of all ethnic backgrounds pass by. She doesn’t simply just ask for the reparations or just blatantly give black people the money; she tells the white people what their money is for and she tells the black people why they are receiving the money. While most ignore, some stick around to either give money or talk. However, the longer she sits on the corner, the public becomes aware that the only money she is accepting is from the hands of white people. As black passersby are offered money, the reactions are quite mixed as some find it ever odd while others question Ayo’s morals and even refuse to accept their “owed reparations.” From the African Americans that chose to take the money Ayo gave them, their reactions consisted of questions such as “what is the catch?” or “is this for real?” or responses such as “It wouldn’t be bad to get some money, I think they owe us.” One young lady refused to take the money even after Ayo insisted many times. Her only responses were “no thanks, I don’t need money for reparations” and “white people actually gave you their money?” Her reaction revealed that there is a percentage of the population that thinks what Ayo is doing is not ethically just. The white response on the other hand seemed to invoke more frustration rather than warm feelings for the opposite race. One older man commented on Ayo’s arrogance about the situation by saying “You are all over the place.” Indeed, Ayo’s experiment is not as clear cut as she makes it out to be
Despite oddness of her project, her approach is quite clever in that she enters the public through their own domain. By acting as a panhandler she is actually present on the street and is able to actively engage in conversation that is controversial. Also, her methods created an environment where the content and feedback she was looking for was immediate and qualitative. Miwon Kwon, author of One Place After Another comments on Ayo’s decision to participate amongst her audience by saying, “proponents of new public art of new genre public art explicitly position themselves in opposition to such exclusionary tendencies” (Kwon, 115). If Ayo decided to go about her project in a professional way by acting from an office and staying distanced from the public, her feedback would have been much harder to receive and it would mostly likely have been misleading. Since the people weren’t aware they were being filmed or know that bum they were talking to was actually an acclaimed artist, Ayo was affectively able to capture the public’s true reactions and feelings toward the issue.
Her audience is broad in that she wishes to incorporate as many people as possible into her project. As evidence she has created the “National Day for Panhandling for Reparations.” It is an annual craze that has been happening ever since she first did her experiment in 2003. Her hope is to have as many people around the country as possible go out and occupy a street corner in a major city and do as she did four years ago. While Ayo tries to get her voice heard on a national scale her audience regarding a prominent issue such as slavery is narrowed to only black and white people. In the video, the only people she talks to are black and white people and in interviews about her project she only mentions slavery as white vs black. By doing this some argue that she stereotypes all white people as historic slave owners and identifies all black people with an ancestral past of bondage. In addition, from the video it seems that Ayo treats the white people as if they were pawns in her experiment only existing to donate their money. Whenever a white person asks about her project she gives answers mainly regarding money as opposed to when black people are present she is much more hospitable and engages in conversation about her intentions for her project.
Despite bewilderment from many people regarding “Living Flag; Panhandling for Reparations,” Ayo believes that her intentions for the project as not so convoluted. According to Ayo, she intends to bring a “grassroots element to the already present academic and legislative conversation” (Wiretap). In essence, she is trying to generate more dialogue and emotion about a topic from the viewpoints of the general public. By handing out reparations she is not necessarily trying to help black people recover from years of slavery, but rather raise awareness about the issue and expose the reactions of the American public to the American public. Ayo comments on her project by saying, "As an artist, my job is to get the conversation flowing ... I don't write the policy, I leave that to the experts.”
One problem with her message is that it she is leaving out 12.5% of the population that is neither white or black (Census 2006). There are still many other ethnic backgrounds such as Asians, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, and Natives that could possess racist qualities. At the peak of immigration in our country it seems pretty small-minded to only include blacks and whites in a national movement for slavery awareness.

Culture in Action

One of the projects in Kwon in the “Culture for Action” section was the Haha Flood Project. “They exceeded their given status as community-based public art projects: their meaning and value defied the specific art-oriented contextualization of the exhibition” (Kwon 132). Flood grew plants in a hydroponic garden. The point to the project was not to grow food for those affected by AIDS or HIV. While their project was very helpful to unfortunate citizens, it is not art. The more I read about all these strange projects the more I begin to think everything is associated with art. However, according to Kwon, what they did was an outstanding form of art.

Essay 3 outline

Thesis- While Damali Ayo was successful in bringing attention to the issue of racism and injustice, her approach only contributed to increased tension amongst the two races and in no way, shape or form did anything to better society.

Paragraph 1- Was dressing like a bum really a necessary measure in order to ensure that her voice would be heard regarding the issues of slavery and racism? A more civic and intellectual approach would have been more influential seeing that the whole point of the project was to try to make whites respect blacks.

Paragraph 2- Other than generate frustration, what would taking money from white people that have nothing to do with slavery three generations ago do to help the issue?

Paragraph 3- As evidence to the video, reactions of anger and aggravation outweighed any hope of potential understanding or acceptance due to the fact that Ayo’s methods were not well thought-out.

Paragraph 4- Through examples of previous movements for civil rights and anti-slavery such as Martin Luther King’s rally and Rosa Park’s act on the bus, it is clear that in order to make changes, a problem needs to still persist. While it is true that there are still many racists, slavery ended long ago and recently blacks have been moving up in society.

Conclusion- Everywhere you hear Damali Ayo’s name, words like advocate and anti-racism appear. Although she supports a good cause, this demonstration in particular did nothing positive for equal rights awareness

Quote 1- “She’s written a book called "How to Rent a Negro" and created a satirical Web site, www.rent-a-negro.com. But damali ayo insists she is not a racist and is not making fun of white people” (ABC News).

Quote 2- “proponents of new public art of new genre public art explicitly position themselves in opposition to such exclusionary tendencies” (Kwon, 115).

Quote 3- “Social movements succeed when multiple channels are involved.” (Damali Ayo).

Quote 4- “to engage consciously with these and related issues can liberate on to listen to and undestand this art form of black, working-class culture” (Piper 133)

My topic for Essay 3 will be Damali Ayo's "Panhandling for Reparation."

1.Did she do this to bring attention to the issue or display a cynical attitude?
2.How did dressing like a bum further her point?

Sources
1.Black Power : The Politics of Liberation by Charles V. Hamilton
2."A Day in the Life of Damali Ayo" by Brian Robinson of ABC News
3."How to Rent a Negro" by Damali Ayo
4."What Did She Say" by Damali Ayo

Oct. 31st Blog

“Video and Resistance: Against Documentary” says that a photograph is very special because it captures an even as a fact. It explains how memory often times misshapes images and events while a picture captures it indefinitely. Then it goes on to tell how documentaries are bad because they use images to tell a biased story. During documentaries, people aren’t allowed to discover their own opinions, they just buy into what the documentary says
Sontag has a view about photography in that it reveals the truth. She says that photography is a clear and truthful gateway to history. Yet unlike a documentary, they give the viewer room to have his/her own interpretation of the image being that it is just an image. Both Sontag and the author above believe that photos are important tools in with many different uses.

Superfund,a government subsidized program that takes on the task of cleaning toxic waste infested creeks, lakes, streams,and other natural environments is about to go bankrupt. In the past, the polluters such as factories, chemical waste plants, and military bases, have funded this program under a government enforced levied tax. However, 1995 Congress has not renewed this plan and the money is running out. Recently the revenue for Superfund as come directly from American tax-payers walets. There is much debate over this issue becuase it is hard to make a corporation pay for toxic waste cleanup unless they are directly involved. Such situations have resulted in legal battles that have in turn costed Superfund even more money. In other cases, urban development planners have shyed away from polluted areas in fear of being held responsable for coving the cost of cleaning. It is evident that Superfund needs to be funded one way or another. Whether it falls in the hands of the tax-payers or wealthy corporations will be up up to the government.

Onondaga Lake Link