A Tale Of Two Hoodies By Michael D Antuno

Racial racism is something that continues throughout society. It can be from simple actions such as verbal abuse to the more serious actions such as physical violence. It can come to the point where people die just because of it. For example when a seventeen year old African American is killed by a Hispanic male and acquitted of his crime. There are many ways in which people can oppose racial racism but one of them comes with art. Art can leave a very powerful message and can at some point get very controversial. It can be viewed as a weapon used to fight against something. Like the expression the pen is mightier than the sword. Michael D’ Antuno is considered to be one of the worlds most controversial artists. He is known for making art
that challenged people to think more deeply about sociopolitical issues. In 2009 he made one of his most controversial painting named the Truth. It portraying Barack Obama standing in a crucified posed stance in front of the presidential seal. This is one of the many other paintings that he does. He isn't afraid to paint very controversial paintings as he tries to spark social change. Another painting that got lot of attention would be the painting named A Tale of Two Hoodies.
This one portrays two people in front of the confederate flag. On the left side there is a police officer pointing a gun at an african american child while wearing a Ku Klux Klan hoodie. The boy is holding sweeties and looking up at the officer in way that makes it look as he is trying to share his sweeties. The reason that Michael chose to paint this was because he was inspired by the Zimmerman case and the ending result of it. He painted it to symbolize the travesty of racially profiling innocent children and it effect on the law enforcement and the judicial system. The short story about the case is that a young 17 year old African American boy is killed by a hispanic male. Zimmerman was the on patrol at night while Martin was walking home with skittles and a soda. Zimmerman thought he was suspicious and followed him. As result Martin
died. Cultural Competence would call this an institutional form of racism. It is, “
the manipulation of societal institutions to give preferences and advantages to whites to restrict the choices, rights, mobility, and access of people of color.”() Now its does not mean that Zimmerman was purposely given right to go free. Just because based on the lack of evidence there was nothing to hold him. Yet another underlying reason was because the child was African American. Now what most would thing is that if it had been a white child instead of a black child then maybe the jury would have had made a different call. The reason that I see this as opposing racism is because the painting shows the obvious racism involved in it.
By obvious I mean the history between the Klu Klux Klan and African Americans. Ever since the time of their emancipation they have been subject to the prosecution of the KKK. Another thing that stands out is that the person who is wearing the KKK hoodie. He is a police officer who as we know is someone who is supposed to serve and protect the citizens. Yet the person in the painting their gun at an African American boy who looks clearly to be innocent. He even starts to offer the officer some of his candy. Now when looking at it from the perspective of it opposing racism while knowing knowledge of the reason why it was painted(Zimmerman case) gives it a different reason. It opposes racism by showing how the justice system is flawed because of racism. For example the in the case there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute Zimmerman because only himself and Martin were the only people there. Not to mention since he was African American he was a bit more in his
favor. Art is something that can create beautiful decor but it also brings about something deep that can be used as a weapon of some sort. It can be used to fight against a certain topic. For example the Zimmerman case is one of those topics. The topic at the time was very well known and not everyone was satisfied with the ruling at then end. One way to fight against it would be painting something that depicts it and shows the flaws so that one day it can be fixed.