Arguments Against Graffiti

Graffiti is a long living “symbol of youth and music culture, graffiti is one of the four elements of hip hop” (Wexler 6). Suzanne Wexler states that graffiti “first appeared on the New York subways in the 1970s, representing a form of public art” (6). For the most part, graffiti is tolerated, as long as it is aesthetically appealing and not defacing someone’s property. Problems arise when people go and deface a public place, such as an occupied business, building, house, car, etc. Then, the city has to pay money in order to hire people to go and remove the vandalism. There is a clear difference between malicious vandalism, the defacing of public property, and graffiti. Graffiti is an art form that takes a lot of thought on the image wanting to be portrayed, as well as practice to develop the ability to execute a permanent picture with spray paint, and the dedication to stick with this art form through having to avoid the police. As stated above, graffiti takes time, thought, and practice, it is not meaningless and random.
For example, graffiti “takes 10 seconds to execute, but what people don't realize is that it took the kid -- I can't even begin to count -- how many hours of writing his name on a piece of paper until he figures out how the letters are going to interlock” (Wexler sec B: 6). MLA Graffiti artists even have “a sort of Ten Commandments that were established by graffiti artists in New York,” these rules state that there shall be “no writing on occupied homes, active businesses, personal
Oviedo 2 property, schools, churches and federal buildings” (Greenwood sec. A: 1). This shows that even though graffiti art is considered illegal, graffiti artists have their own laws to avoid direct property damage. For some people, they do graffiti as a way “to relieve stress” and that to them, “it’s just like smoking cigarettes” (Larrabee n. pag.). Obviously, doing art is a much healthier way to relieve stress, then turning to things such as cigarettes, alcohol, etc. Graffiti is an art form because “anything where people put in as much blood, sweat and tears into their craft should be considered an art form and not vandalism” (Greenwood A:1). When people think about graffiti, they think about its associations with gangs, but in fact, “most ‘graffers’ are white males, often from affluent communities, often past the age where they could be dismissed as juvenile pranksters” (Larrabee n. pag.). Speaking of gangs, not even all gang graffiti is bad. Graffiti is a gang practice that “help gang members define their group within the spaces where they live” (Phillips 117-19) AT END OF SENTENCES, gang members use graffiti to embrace their ties to their gang and its people. For example, “Chicano gangs seem to have a mostly positive form of identity, focusing on the production of pride-affirming messages” (Phillips 117-19). So that shows that not all gang graffiti is terrible and offensive or anything like that. “Gang members identify basically four interrelated but distinct types of graffiti: hitting up, crossing out, roll calls, and RIPs (memorial graffiti)” (Phillips 117-19). “Hitting up” and “roll call” are where gang members make positive statements about gang membership. “Crossing out/challenging” is combative graffiti where rival gangs mark over each other’s graffiti in a struggle for power and recognition. The picture is an example of crossing out of North versus South in Delhi, CA near highway 99 (Phillips 117-19). Lastly, RIPs, or memorial graffiti, are in memoriam to fallen gang members. Gangs have all these different types of graffiti,
Oviedo 3 and they all have a purpose behind them, although “challenging” is quite an eyesore. Gang graffiti also has a different type of use, for the police. Denny Borg, an intelligence officer, says that police “use graffiti to get different nicknames, and see who is with what gang” (Greenwood A:1) which is very helpful in tracking down gang related crimes. Another key point to the consideration of graffiti as an art, is that “today, second-generation vandals-turned-artists are earning critical respect and commercial success in the worlds of art and fashion.” For example, “one by the name of Banksy, who was born in 1974 in Bristol, England, fetches up to $500,000 for his graffiti-inspired artwork” (Wexler sec. B: 6). Another graffiti, SKAM, from Canada is getting success. “His interlocking letters scrawled around the city earned him underground fame; now, he commands $1,000 and up for his graffiti-style commission work” (Wexler sec. B: 6). Despite all the great reasons as to why graffiti should be considered an art, it is considered a costly one.
“Across the country, communities are searching for ways to combat tagging,” usually, “many cities try to discourage graffiti by removing it as quickly as possible” (Larrabee n. pag.). This has lowered the number of people trying to do graffiti by eliminating the ones that won’t keep putting their work back up time after time if it will just be removed. Many people consider graffiti an art, and almost an equal amount say "They call it art or a prank, but it really contributes to social decline" (Larrabee n. pag.). Apparently, when “you see graffiti on the subway, you get the perception the area is unsafe. Shoppers see it on buildings, and they worry they're in a high-crime neighborhood. They start staying away, and eventually property values go down, and more serious crime starts moving in,” (Larrabee n. pag.) so that would be a
negative
Oviedo 4 impact of things such as “challenging” gang graffiti, or explicit images. There would be a different reaction if it looked like some meaningful art. This type of graffiti is what has given the graffiti art a bad name, and the kind that is removed, which costs up to “$15 billion a year” (Larrabee n. pag.). In Michigan alone, specifically just the Metropolitan area of Detroit, they spend “about $100,000 to clean graffiti off freeways in Metro Detroit by either painting over it or with power-washing,” (Greenwood A:1) which shows that graffiti removal is a dent in the tax dollars the U.S. spends, which could be used for better causes, if people hadn’t just mindlessly vandalized. In conclusion, vandalism is a very costly offense costing up to “$15 billion a year” (Larrabee n. pag.), and up to “about $100,000” in cities alone. But graffiti is mostly tolerated as long as it is “good stuff, where you could see that somebody put some thought and effort behind it, if they took their time, then that's a different story” (Greenwood A:1). So, graffiti, as long as it isn’t offensive or destructive, should be considered a respectable art form. More cities should open graffiti galleries, such as the one in Austin, TX.