This picture is famous. My dumb ass just found out about it today. The photo essay that centers around this piece talks about a racial clash in Boston back in the 1970s that pit white, working class whites against Blacks of the same class. They were fighting about busing and school integration. In the picture, this white teen attacks a Black (Yale educated) lawyer who was on his way to city hall. The photographer, Stanley Forman, captured this moment when he was sent to cover the protest. The piece, for quite obvious reasons is award-winning and so thought-provoking. The American flag as a weapon. How true, indeed.
The essay talks about how this photo invokes the memories of other photos. Particularly, how the incident in this photo reminds one of the depictions of the Boston Massacre. Ironically, the location of this assault is not that far from where Crispus Attucks was killed by British soldiers. Reading this made me think about Crispus and how I was never really that impressed with him. While many people laud him as a heroic figure in both Black-American and American history, I can't help but think of him as a total fucking idiot. Why would any Black person want to help defend the very country that oppresses them? Did Crispus actually think that by gaining freedom from the British, Americans might give his people freedom? Please don't tell me he thought that. Please.
Anywho, the photo essay (I love photo essays because they're like essays, but with pictures) is good and adds another level of discussion to the already bogged down discourse on "race" in America and about symbolism and who exactly the stars and stripes protect.
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