Well, it’s come to that
flip a coin when stasis sets in
John the Ambiguous was always one for a coin toss
Have a kid, break up, get married, break up
whatever flummoxed him was reduced to a 50/50 chance
A good thing coins aren’t dice cubes.
It would increase the odds.
Otherwise we’d all be snake’s eyes.
10/17/06
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
CPITS 2006, AT THE COUNTY FAIR
REGENERATIVE WRITING —with Tobey Kaplan
AT THE COUNTY FAIR
—for Sharon Doubiago
The carnival straddled a limnal boundary
between civilization & endless fields of corn.
A miracle in the bright dust and mirrored lake
deep summer bloomed in cotton candy colors.
For a moment she was screaming,
& laughing against a bright sky
as the Fairest Wheel lifted her
weightless against the burden
of her father’s darkness.
In a constant elegy of ascent & death,
the Fairest Wheel dizzied them up to the stars,
& plunged them in o the dwarfed laps of broken families.
For a moment, she forgot she lived
the enchanted sleep of Snow White
where in dreams she rode a carousel pony.
Between her clenched teeth, not a rose,
but a blanket emitted a high-pitched sound
as a bright bloom escaped from her gown.
As she loosened herself from the horizon,
she was forever tumbling against a silken sky.
Her blonde hair, a temporary sun
eclipsed & eclipsing the retextured sunlight.
For a moment she forgot what she was
becoming, a black dahlia.
Dust & parched earth. You could taste it
in the air, acrid like carbolic soap & sweat.
Soon the rains would come.
—Maureen Hurley
Walker Creek Ranch, 10/15.2006
MAUREEN HURLEY who grew up in the wilds of West Marin, a watershed away from Walker Creek, was Area Coordinator for Sonoma County for a decade, at present, she’s learning her urban skills in on the shores of Lake Merrit in Oakland. Published in the 2006 CPITS statewide anthology
GENERATIVE WRITING
From Thoreau, TC Boyle. Oates, Wright, Merrill, etc.
We were observing
Replacing the old style cells
In which a window
Measuring 6 x 8 feet
More movement there
Perhaps I was not thinking coherently
In this state I was careless
Their faces showed consternation
I was confused, so I smiled
The color drained out of the treetops
It was like looking up at the emerging stats
But who was counting
For a long while she didn’t say anything
I don’t know what’s wrong with me
He foresaw every disaster so no was on his lips
Listen he said, speaking tot the sky
The spilled paint of stars
Softened his voice
I won’t give anyone another chance
It’s been a long dance with death
I realized that I’m possibly quite mad.
I know he is.
The world is full of people
separated from themselves by families
What was her favorite song.,
the name of the lover she took to the grave
I never adopt a person who doesn’t have
In the case of numbers
It allowed me a substitution
The trouble with Mike was
We had become middle class
But our dog had not
They turned towards us as if praying
She believed he betrayed mongrel origins
We were all, in all places
A picture of Brazilia,
a white mansion shining in the jungle
The music is powerful, blessed
In this fine white afternoon
Paying no attention\to our own little brick utopia
Sort & discard
The heavy-footed building
A lazy reach & sigh
These are the papers I need
It begins to thin in the air at dusk
The one, a poet, the other an action.
PERSONA WORKSHOP
MARGINALIA After Jarrell
I had started to walk down the path
These are the roads you find yourself traveling
Homesick for anything, she asked me in her windswept voice
Occasions for the grief that left me seething at the sea
She heard a lot of it when she came home from the hospital
Help me! The pain in her bones paralyzed me
So I wrote these words in the margins
AT THE COUNTY FAIR
—for Sharon Doubiago
The carnival straddled a limnal boundary
between civilization & endless fields of corn.
A miracle in the bright dust and mirrored lake
deep summer bloomed in cotton candy colors.
For a moment she was screaming,
& laughing against a bright sky
as the Fairest Wheel lifted her
weightless against the burden
of her father’s darkness.
In a constant elegy of ascent & death,
the Fairest Wheel dizzied them up to the stars,
& plunged them in o the dwarfed laps of broken families.
For a moment, she forgot she lived
the enchanted sleep of Snow White
where in dreams she rode a carousel pony.
Between her clenched teeth, not a rose,
but a blanket emitted a high-pitched sound
as a bright bloom escaped from her gown.
As she loosened herself from the horizon,
she was forever tumbling against a silken sky.
Her blonde hair, a temporary sun
eclipsed & eclipsing the retextured sunlight.
For a moment she forgot what she was
becoming, a black dahlia.
Dust & parched earth. You could taste it
in the air, acrid like carbolic soap & sweat.
Soon the rains would come.
—Maureen Hurley
Walker Creek Ranch, 10/15.2006
MAUREEN HURLEY who grew up in the wilds of West Marin, a watershed away from Walker Creek, was Area Coordinator for Sonoma County for a decade, at present, she’s learning her urban skills in on the shores of Lake Merrit in Oakland. Published in the 2006 CPITS statewide anthology
GENERATIVE WRITING
From Thoreau, TC Boyle. Oates, Wright, Merrill, etc.
We were observing
Replacing the old style cells
In which a window
Measuring 6 x 8 feet
More movement there
Perhaps I was not thinking coherently
In this state I was careless
Their faces showed consternation
I was confused, so I smiled
The color drained out of the treetops
It was like looking up at the emerging stats
But who was counting
For a long while she didn’t say anything
I don’t know what’s wrong with me
He foresaw every disaster so no was on his lips
Listen he said, speaking tot the sky
The spilled paint of stars
Softened his voice
I won’t give anyone another chance
It’s been a long dance with death
I realized that I’m possibly quite mad.
I know he is.
The world is full of people
separated from themselves by families
What was her favorite song.,
the name of the lover she took to the grave
I never adopt a person who doesn’t have
In the case of numbers
It allowed me a substitution
The trouble with Mike was
We had become middle class
But our dog had not
They turned towards us as if praying
She believed he betrayed mongrel origins
We were all, in all places
A picture of Brazilia,
a white mansion shining in the jungle
The music is powerful, blessed
In this fine white afternoon
Paying no attention\to our own little brick utopia
Sort & discard
The heavy-footed building
A lazy reach & sigh
These are the papers I need
It begins to thin in the air at dusk
The one, a poet, the other an action.
PERSONA WORKSHOP
MARGINALIA After Jarrell
I had started to walk down the path
These are the roads you find yourself traveling
Homesick for anything, she asked me in her windswept voice
Occasions for the grief that left me seething at the sea
She heard a lot of it when she came home from the hospital
Help me! The pain in her bones paralyzed me
So I wrote these words in the margins
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Buena Vista Social Club on AmieStreet Music
“Talk about finding solid gold on Amie Street Music! The Cuban All Star Band aka the Buena Vista Social Club, has gotta be the motherlode of Cuban music. The all stars of Cuban BC Big Band (Before Castro) era had a huge American following in Hot & Hip Havana from the Prohobition to the 1950s.
have a listen here
On the track, "Chan Chan," the late, great godfather of the son-bolero style, Compay Segundo, performs his own world famous composition with lead singer, Eliades Ochoa. That unmistakable four-chord opening "son" is Buena Vista Social Club's calling card!
Some of you might recall Wim Wenders' amazing 1997 award-winning documentary entitled "The Buena Vista Social Club," that showcased Old Havana's golden age of big band music during the 1940s.
In those days there were fraternal social clubs for all kinds of interests: cigar clubs, literary clubs, music clubs. Think mens' clubs, like the Bohemian Club. There was one Afro-Cuban music club, the Buena Vista Social Club which was abolished, the music nearly lost forever when socialism "abolished" racism. But hey, it gave us a communist-sanctioned version of mambo called salsa.
These world-class Cuban musicians who invented the mambo, lost their livelihood under the throes of communism, the king of mambo Perez Prado fled to Mexico and Ibriham Ferrer, the veritable honey-voiced Nat King Cole of Cuba, was reduced to shining shoes on the streets of Havana for pocket money.
Kudus to Ry Cooder who was instrumental in resurrecting these neglected stars of the golden Cuban musical tradition that languished some 40 years. Cooder's three resulting CDs, by "Los Super abuelos" (super grandaddies) of Cuban music, The (Afro) & the Cuban Allstars, and The Buena Vista Social Club, took off like wildfire—almost entirely by word of mouth.
The most famous CD, the Grammy award-winning album, the Buena Vista Social Club (1997), recorded in six days in Havana's vintage RCA-EGREM studio, went on to sell over 6 million copies, worldwide. Not bad for word of mouth.
Cooder was later prosecuted and fined for breaking the US trade embargo Trading with the Enemy Act.
These old Havana musicians really are super abuelos. Imagine this: Compay Segundo (1907-2003), who invented a seven-stringed musical instrument similar to an Andean charango, called the armónico, came to world fame at the age of 93 and in 2003, he recorded his final album, "Las Flores de la Vida" at the tender age of 96.
Ry Cooder said of his passing:
"The last of the best,
the oracle,
the source,
the one who represents where it all flows from"
is gone from us.
Horsemen, pass by.
have a listen here
On the track, "Chan Chan," the late, great godfather of the son-bolero style, Compay Segundo, performs his own world famous composition with lead singer, Eliades Ochoa. That unmistakable four-chord opening "son" is Buena Vista Social Club's calling card!
Some of you might recall Wim Wenders' amazing 1997 award-winning documentary entitled "The Buena Vista Social Club," that showcased Old Havana's golden age of big band music during the 1940s.
In those days there were fraternal social clubs for all kinds of interests: cigar clubs, literary clubs, music clubs. Think mens' clubs, like the Bohemian Club. There was one Afro-Cuban music club, the Buena Vista Social Club which was abolished, the music nearly lost forever when socialism "abolished" racism. But hey, it gave us a communist-sanctioned version of mambo called salsa.
These world-class Cuban musicians who invented the mambo, lost their livelihood under the throes of communism, the king of mambo Perez Prado fled to Mexico and Ibriham Ferrer, the veritable honey-voiced Nat King Cole of Cuba, was reduced to shining shoes on the streets of Havana for pocket money.
Kudus to Ry Cooder who was instrumental in resurrecting these neglected stars of the golden Cuban musical tradition that languished some 40 years. Cooder's three resulting CDs, by "Los Super abuelos" (super grandaddies) of Cuban music, The (Afro) & the Cuban Allstars, and The Buena Vista Social Club, took off like wildfire—almost entirely by word of mouth.
The most famous CD, the Grammy award-winning album, the Buena Vista Social Club (1997), recorded in six days in Havana's vintage RCA-EGREM studio, went on to sell over 6 million copies, worldwide. Not bad for word of mouth.
Cooder was later prosecuted and fined for breaking the US trade embargo Trading with the Enemy Act.
These old Havana musicians really are super abuelos. Imagine this: Compay Segundo (1907-2003), who invented a seven-stringed musical instrument similar to an Andean charango, called the armónico, came to world fame at the age of 93 and in 2003, he recorded his final album, "Las Flores de la Vida" at the tender age of 96.
Ry Cooder said of his passing:
"The last of the best,
the oracle,
the source,
the one who represents where it all flows from"
is gone from us.
Horsemen, pass by.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Making Things: Artist Raymond Barnhart 10/5/91
Assemblages by Sebastopol Artist Raymond BarnhartTHE SUM OF ITS PARTS— Barnhart outside his Sebastopol work space with one of his "relief constructions," Consummation. "I want to please the work. I want it to please itself."
We asked the captain what course of action to take toward a beast so large, terrifying, and unpredictable. He hesitated to answer, and then said judiciously: "I think I shall praise it." —Robert Hass, Praise
BY MAUREEN HURLEY
I recalled the twist on reality and an unexpected visit from poet Bob Hass' poem, Praise while viewing Sebastopol artist Raymond Barnhardt's latest exhibit, "Recent Constructions" at the California Museum of Art in Santa Rosa, California.
Because everyone's response to my queries about Raymond Barnhart and his work was the inevitable raised eyebrow, followed by an incredulous: "You mean you don't KNOW about Raymond Barnhart's illustrious career?" I gulped, and found that the best recourse was to praise it. Taking the beast by the horns—by asking Barnhart niggling details about his second career as an assemblage artist (painting was his first career) seemed sacreligiously inane and so unintelligent. Excuse me, your slip is showing...
And so, at a recent artist's lecture at the California Museum of Art (CMA), when the venerable artist himself was introduced by museum director Duane Jones as "Someone who needs no introduction," I thought, aww feck, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was right: "You can only ask questions and die." Luckily, the lecture was a quorum of questions ranging from "How do you name your art?" to "What kind of power tools do you use?" The questions were all answered by Barnhart, age 88, with such thoughtfulness, verve and wit, I was in love with love itself.
Artists know firsthand that one of the challenges in art and poetry is to create something that is profound, but with a sense of humor. One who can accomplish both—without lessening the impact of the statement—is a Master. Barnhart's elegant, formal masterful assemblages are intentionally playful, they delight the eye, they make you want to laugh.
And so, at a recent artist's lecture at the California Museum of Art (CMA), when the venerable artist himself was introduced by museum director Duane Jones as "Someone who needs no introduction," I thought, aww feck, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was right: "You can only ask questions and die." Luckily, the lecture was a quorum of questions ranging from "How do you name your art?" to "What kind of power tools do you use?" The questions were all answered by Barnhart, age 88, with such thoughtfulness, verve and wit, I was in love with love itself.
Artists know firsthand that one of the challenges in art and poetry is to create something that is profound, but with a sense of humor. One who can accomplish both—without lessening the impact of the statement—is a Master. Barnhart's elegant, formal masterful assemblages are intentionally playful, they delight the eye, they make you want to laugh.
Conceptual artists make us look at ordinary things in a new way, they redefine our limited perameters of "definition." It comes down to rearranging concrete nouns into metaphor—Plato's nemesis. The metaphor of Picasso's bicycle seat and handlebars as a bull's skull. Man Ray's steam iron with nails, and Christo's running fence—all share that spirited kinship to challenge the senses and reality. How we see the world.
In his youth, Raymond Barnhart worked as a riverboat deck-hand, carpenter, fruitpacker, and window designer before becoming an artist. A painter during the first half of his life, Barnhart received his MFA from Ohio State University, and he was an instructor at the University of Kentucky for 32 years before leaving and moving to California in 1958.
In his youth, Raymond Barnhart worked as a riverboat deck-hand, carpenter, fruitpacker, and window designer before becoming an artist. A painter during the first half of his life, Barnhart received his MFA from Ohio State University, and he was an instructor at the University of Kentucky for 32 years before leaving and moving to California in 1958.
While teaching a design and wood sculpture class in Mill Valley, and from his contacts with the Bauhaus novement, Barnhart found his true medium: assemblage. His assemblage work is classical in the sense of composition, aesthetics, and design. From the Conceptualists, he incorporated the use of found objects. And he made a just marriage of it.
But whereas Conceptualists diverged, exploring man's alienation in society, Barnhart's work is full of hope and compassion: it reflects the linear sentiments of art, beauty, balance, harmony; it transmorgifies limitation as set in stone by various art movements: it remains unswerving in its devotion to the aesthetics of art.
Wind-blasted, sun-bleached, and burnt materials juxtaposed against man-made rusted and tarnished discards become the poetry of deserted places. Fellow Sonoma County artist John Kessel said, "Raymond Barnhart assembles diverse, objects to create visual poems that evoke either man's place in nature—or man in contemplation before nature. Some pieces tell a story, and all are poems which convey an impact. This is an art of redemption and reconciliation."
Raymond Barnhart's contemplative "Homage to Albers," a tribute to former teacher and Bauhaus master Josef Albers, is essentially a 3-D painting made of found materials. So many relief constructions, or constructed reliefs that double as sculptures, are also subtle and painterly—the wrong color value or texture would destroy the harmony.
Wind-blasted, sun-bleached, and burnt materials juxtaposed against man-made rusted and tarnished discards become the poetry of deserted places. Fellow Sonoma County artist John Kessel said, "Raymond Barnhart assembles diverse, objects to create visual poems that evoke either man's place in nature—or man in contemplation before nature. Some pieces tell a story, and all are poems which convey an impact. This is an art of redemption and reconciliation."
Raymond Barnhart's contemplative "Homage to Albers," a tribute to former teacher and Bauhaus master Josef Albers, is essentially a 3-D painting made of found materials. So many relief constructions, or constructed reliefs that double as sculptures, are also subtle and painterly—the wrong color value or texture would destroy the harmony.
The piece entitled "Yesterdays," for instance, is made of mullein leaves and weathered boards accented with traces of vermillion and rust. "Straight Guy'" has a cerulean blue backdrop for the book, embellished with old Mexican coins—Quetzocoatl's centavos and cobwebs (intentional or otherwise).
Many of the relief-constructions are formal in composition, and all have stories behind them: "Playtime," an elegant moment from another era, is captured with that one lost glove and fragments of a mirror set against a pale peach and tender green backdrop, while "Op-Art?," evolved from a run-in with a wood-munching gopher absconding with dried fruit in a prune tray—the ultimate recycler's revenge.
"Sort of an Altar" is in keeping with pre-Christian animistic Native, and Latin American traditions. Barnhart spent considerable time in the Southwest and Mexico studying new materials, including vinyl resins under José Guiterréz.
"Sort of an Altar" is in keeping with pre-Christian animistic Native, and Latin American traditions. Barnhart spent considerable time in the Southwest and Mexico studying new materials, including vinyl resins under José Guiterréz.
Other pieces evoke a Japanese aesthetic. Simplicity and clean lines—an oxymoron when one considers the human detritus from which these constructions arise, phoenix-like, from our discards.
In the Japanese sense of the tradition, Barnhart is Sonoma County's "living national treasure," an honorary title the Japanese bestow upon their finest artists. As it tums out, in 1962 and I963, Barnhart took a sabbatical in Kyoto, to observe traditional culture. His assemblage, "Memorial" is in the contemplative spirit of a Japanese Zen garden and is "quintessentually Raymond," as one art patron committed at the exhibit.
When someone asked. "How does the spirit enter the work?" both Barnhart's wife, Genevieve, a jeweler-sculptor, and CMA Director Duane Jones interjected in unison: "Because it's there!" A variation of the famous Adele Davis quote banged around in my head: "Your art is what you meet."
When someone asked. "How does the spirit enter the work?" both Barnhart's wife, Genevieve, a jeweler-sculptor, and CMA Director Duane Jones interjected in unison: "Because it's there!" A variation of the famous Adele Davis quote banged around in my head: "Your art is what you meet."
Perhaps a more hard-hitting audience question was "Why is this art?" Barnhart sanguinely commented: "You're no beffer than what you are—you do the best you can. I make what I want—the best I can. Some people call it fine art. I don't have the ego to call it that, I just make things." At a previous an show, when an observer snarled, "What's this supposed to be?" Barnhart replied, "It already is what it is!"
Barnhart attributes his interest in recycling found objects both to his youthful visits to the city dump and to his job at a large department store where, like Andy Warhol, he got his start in the arts by arranging window designs... for women's corsets and brazierres. "I'd see something interesting." An under-statement. Apparently his bosses who kept abreast of his provocative displays, agreed: two year later he was appointed head of the entire display department.
According to Barnhart, bringing a relief-construction into the world for public display is usually a process of elimination rather than of adding to the composition. And he arranges things by degrees—the way a mechanic fine-tunes the points on a car: if the dwell-gap isn't just right, the end result is a car that won't run and you're on foot far from home some dark and rainy night. CMA Curator Duane Jones commented, "When one of Barnhart's assemblages undergoes subtle rearrangement, it might take months before it is completed."
"The piece and I become a team," Barnhart explained, "We grow together. I start off with a plan, but wonderful things happen along the way. I want to please the work. I want it to please itself, and I want people to respond to it. I'm not the great artist who makes things difficult to understand—children like my work." High praise, indeed.
When an art patron asked if he plains an assemblage in advance. Barnhart replied, "No, that would be like meeting three people you've never met before and already you've figured out how to manage them."
Barnhart commented that one of the first pieces to sell at the CMA exhibit, "Crisis" featuring Japanese dolls, is "an absurd sort of piece, it doesn't make any kind of sense. It's a kind of insanity that I had to follow." He compared his own artwork to how some people react to stress. "It's absurd; a pun." As is his purple mouse and throne, "Her Highness."
One piece with a conundrum of a title, "Emanon," is merely "no name" spelled backwards. Barnhart said, "I ask the pieces, what is it you're really standing for? I limit my definitions to a deliberate vagueness, because if I'm specific, I'm narrowing it down. You are not limited by your own presuppositions. I name my pieces purely for identification purposes. If you don't like them, why then, make up your own name."
Barnhart considers himself to be a third-rate carpenter with a proclivity for the hand saw. He said, "I'd rather do it by hand; it's in keeping with the material I use. I'm pretty conscietious about using authentic wood." He elaborates that nothing can mimic the natural aging process of the elememts—which gives his works their characteristic patina.
Though owing to the fragile nature of his material, Barnhart doesn't imagine his art will outlast an art consumer's grandchildren. Barnhart says, "I use lots of nails. And glue is a serious proposition. It's embarrassing to have you piece come apart."
Barnhart reflects, the process of finding a home for the artwork is is often painful. "I hate to see some of them go, or to put prices on them." He dislikes working through a regular dealer and insead prefers that potential buyers come directy to the source, so he holds an annual open house and studio (this year's Open Studio is Sept. 28 through Oct. 6).
Barnhart reflects, the process of finding a home for the artwork is is often painful. "I hate to see some of them go, or to put prices on them." He dislikes working through a regular dealer and insead prefers that potential buyers come directy to the source, so he holds an annual open house and studio (this year's Open Studio is Sept. 28 through Oct. 6).
Barnhart's prices are downright bargains—far below that of lesser artists' work-because he wants to make his art affordable to artists. One artist friend paid installments at $10 month for three years. "It should be on the wall for someone to appreciate." At any given time, he has over 150 pieces floating around his studio and home. At a dozen pieces a year, he's not a prolific artist, but then, he says, he doesn't do it for the money.
Bamhart migrated to Sebastopol in 1969 with "all the cumbersome impedimenta of an assemblagíste." He described his hand-built home, work areas and studio located in the hills west of Sebastopol, "like having an enormous library.' He peered over his glasses and said to me: "You're a poet; it's like your having a dictionary or a thesaurus."
Bamhart migrated to Sebastopol in 1969 with "all the cumbersome impedimenta of an assemblagíste." He described his hand-built home, work areas and studio located in the hills west of Sebastopol, "like having an enormous library.' He peered over his glasses and said to me: "You're a poet; it's like your having a dictionary or a thesaurus."
His "library" of reference material from which he draws upon to make the assemblages that are slowly born into this material world——is extensive. Sometimes it takes years to get each piece jiust right. Thirty years' worth of material slowly continues to evolve, or devolve, as the case may be, patiently awaiting the resurrection into art.
Barnhart says he sorts things according to shape and substance: rebar, stones, bones, feathers, 2x4s, weathered barn-siding, etc. He says constructing assemblage is not like painting—from a few tubes, we can mix millions of colors. "I start to work on a piece. it tells me it wants something—then I have to go out and find it—without knowing exactly what it is." And so the hunt and peck system begins.
Barnhart's assemblages continue to appeal to the senses and delight the eye, because he is a master of composition and serene harmony. I am struck by how much "sense" his assemblages make—found objects, each with a particular history. The equation of this-is-to-this as that-is-to-that. Some found objects incorporated into the art have been knocking around Barnhart's studio since 1957. Other bits and pieces, are flotsam that people have give him. Finding a home for wayward objects requires persistence, patience—and a reverence for what they were in past lives. In Raymond's art, the whole is always greater than its parts.
"Recent Constructions" by Raymond Barnhart is on exhibit at the California Museum of Art at the Luther Bubank Center through Nov. 3. Also on view are assemblages by Santa Rosa artist Charles Churchill. Museum hours are 11 AM to 4 PM, Wednesday through Sunday. For more informaition call 527-0297.
THE WEST SONOMA COUNTY PAPER OCTOBER 3-16/1991 page 21
RAYMOND BARNHART, 1903 -1996
(Raymond Barnhart was fatally injured in a car accident, August, 1996). The Memorial was held at the California Museum of Art, Santa Rosa, California.
"The making of art has been the major force that has formed my life, from the copying of a brilliant autumn leaf in the first grade, on to my recent garden pieces. As a practical youth I envisaged a future as a commercial illustrator, but my eventual exposure to college studies in the history of art along with visits to art museums gave me an awareness of the true art world "out there."
Concurrently with my college and art school classes, I met and worked with some great master-teachers. These latter contacts fortunately set my ambition to become an art teacher myself. This was a most rewarding direction to take because I was able to pass on the making of art to many other young people, to continue my own art production, and—modestly enough—to earn a living.
Since my retirement as Professor at the University of Kentucky in 1968—leaving studio teaching while I still loved it—I have had the privilege of working solely on my own pursuits. Choosing the North Bay Area was fortunate—I have had the privilege of associating with numerous creative artists. So I feel that I have spent my life with art most happily. "
—Raymond Barnhart
from the brochure "Celebration: Raymond Barnhart 1903 - 1996, " Memorial Exhibition, CMA, at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts.
SELE CTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1937 Marshall University, Huntington, WV.
1950-1968 University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (eight exhibitions).
1950 Indiana Museum, Evansville, IN
1952-1966 Art Center, Louisville, KY, (four exhibitions).
1955 Caravan Gallery, New York NY.
1959 McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, TX .
1960 University of Mississipi, Jackson, MI.
1964 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
1964 Staten Island Museum, New York, NY.
1964 Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
1964 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO.
1967 University of Arizona, Tempe, AZ
1969 Cleveland Art Institute, Cleveland, OH.
1969 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO.
1970 Galeria del Sol, Santa Barbara, CA.
1971 Dominican College, San Rafael, CA.
1971 Rio Honda College,Whittier, CA.
1974 Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA.
1976 San Jose Art League, San Jose, CA.
1977 Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, CA.
1977 The Annex Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA.
1978 Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA.
1978 "A" Gallery (Anna Gardner), Santa Rosa, CA.
1980 Quicksilver Mine Co. Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA.
1982 "Home-Studio" exhibition, Sebastopol, CA.
1984 "Home-Studio" exhibition, Sebastopol, CA.
1885 California Museum of Art, Luther Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, CA.
1985 Marshall University Art Museum, Huntington, WV.
1987 J..Noblett Gallery, Boyes Hot Springs, CA.
1988 City Art Center, Walnut Creek, CA.
1990 J.Noblett Gallery, Boyes Hot Springs, CA.
1991 "Home-Studio" exhibition, Sebastopol, CA
1991 California Museum of Art, Luther Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, CA.
1993 "Home-Studio" exhibition, Sebastopol, CA.
1995 California Museum of Art, Luther Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, CA.
1995 University Art Museum, Lexington, KY.
1995 California Museum of Art, (Retrospective exhibition), Luther Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, CA.
1996 California Museum of Art,"Raymond Barnhart: A celebration 1903-1996"
Luther Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, CA.
"The making of art has been the major force that has formed my life, from the copying of a brilliant autumn leaf in the first grade, on to my recent garden pieces. As a practical youth I envisaged a future as a commercial illustrator, but my eventual exposure to college studies in the history of art along with visits to art museums gave me an awareness of the true art world "out there."
Concurrently with my college and art school classes, I met and worked with some great master-teachers. These latter contacts fortunately set my ambition to become an art teacher myself. This was a most rewarding direction to take because I was able to pass on the making of art to many other young people, to continue my own art production, and—modestly enough—to earn a living.
Since my retirement as Professor at the University of Kentucky in 1968—leaving studio teaching while I still loved it—I have had the privilege of working solely on my own pursuits. Choosing the North Bay Area was fortunate—I have had the privilege of associating with numerous creative artists. So I feel that I have spent my life with art most happily. "
—Raymond Barnhart
from the brochure "Celebration: Raymond Barnhart 1903 - 1996, " Memorial Exhibition, CMA, at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts.
SELE CTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1937 Marshall University, Huntington, WV.
1950-1968 University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (eight exhibitions).
1950 Indiana Museum, Evansville, IN
1952-1966 Art Center, Louisville, KY, (four exhibitions).
1955 Caravan Gallery, New York NY.
1959 McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, TX .
1960 University of Mississipi, Jackson, MI.
1964 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
1964 Staten Island Museum, New York, NY.
1964 Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
1964 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO.
1967 University of Arizona, Tempe, AZ
1969 Cleveland Art Institute, Cleveland, OH.
1969 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO.
1970 Galeria del Sol, Santa Barbara, CA.
1971 Dominican College, San Rafael, CA.
1971 Rio Honda College,Whittier, CA.
1974 Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA.
1976 San Jose Art League, San Jose, CA.
1977 Santa Rosa Junior College, Santa Rosa, CA.
1977 The Annex Gallery, Santa Rosa, CA.
1978 Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA.
1978 "A" Gallery (Anna Gardner), Santa Rosa, CA.
1980 Quicksilver Mine Co. Gallery, Stinson Beach, CA.
1982 "Home-Studio" exhibition, Sebastopol, CA.
1984 "Home-Studio" exhibition, Sebastopol, CA.
1885 California Museum of Art, Luther Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, CA.
1985 Marshall University Art Museum, Huntington, WV.
1987 J..Noblett Gallery, Boyes Hot Springs, CA.
1988 City Art Center, Walnut Creek, CA.
1990 J.Noblett Gallery, Boyes Hot Springs, CA.
1991 "Home-Studio" exhibition, Sebastopol, CA
1991 California Museum of Art, Luther Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, CA.
1993 "Home-Studio" exhibition, Sebastopol, CA.
1995 California Museum of Art, Luther Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, CA.
1995 University Art Museum, Lexington, KY.
1995 California Museum of Art, (Retrospective exhibition), Luther Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, CA.
1996 California Museum of Art,"Raymond Barnhart: A celebration 1903-1996"
Luther Burbank Art Center, Santa Rosa, CA.
I am indeed honored to have known such a man as Raymond Barnhart. I am a better person for it. He touched the lives of many artists and writers and will be sorely missed. —MH
Monday, October 1, 2007
Arby's Dancing Chimps Ad is Offensive & Racist
When I saw the Arby's dancing chimp ad, at first it made me laugh. I thought, Oh, Riverdance, oh how funny. Michael Flatley and all that.
But it also made me uncomfortable. So I began to explore the basis for my gut reaction: The pseudo-scientific theories of race eugenics and social Darwinism raised its ugly Medusine head.
A sampling of social Darwinism in action— a la Dr. Beddoe's "index of nigrescence"—reads like a string of redneck blason populaire jokes: ...The Irish are an inferior race, genetically prone to violence, incapable of higher mental feats associated with human intelligence. Teaching algebra to an Irishman is like teaching a cat to churn butter. Study of Irish DNA proves they are closer to a weasel or an ape than an Englishman...
However, in my objection to the Arby's jigging apes ad, I find I am in a very small company. Everyone seems to love the Arby's ad— they find it funny. Intellectually I understand that they see the ad as a current pop cultural icon (I should be flattered. Have we arrived yet?) What disturbs me is that people don't get that it is a reference back to a deeper cultural icon based on centuries of racism.
The missing stereotype that begs to be added to the Arby's ad is a minstrel chorus of whiteface jigging chimps.
In Salon, Bob Callahan, a writer whose laser sharp intellect and keen wit I admire, writes:
"As scholars will tell us, the history of American popular culture begins in the violence of the old minstrel stage, where immigrant Irishmen, their faces blackened by the smudge of burnt cork, created new dance forms out of the old Irish step dancing they'd learned back in Ireland. In America the patterns of the step dance were combined with the versions of African-American field dances that these blackface Irish performers were being paid to ape. To accompany these dances, the melodies of Irish fiddle music were blended with the rhythms of ritual African chanting." Salon, P. 2
Certainly romanticism and primitivism became a refuge for "neo-colonialists" including the Celts. as a mode of countering the threat of racial discrimination from the "other" and the emergence of cultural nationalism has played itself out in myriad stereotypes in popular culture, but when popular culture refers back to the origins of Irish racial discrimination in an ad such as Arby's dancing chimps, then it is a racist act, whether intentional or not.
I did write to Arby's but have not had a response. Snooping around on blogsites, I discovered that a few souls have also written to Arby's, but according to their reports, Arby's is taking the Nativist "Know-nothing" stance, and denies allegations that the ad could be considered by some to be racist. They are clearly in need of a course on media literacy. It is important to expose hidden assumptions of those who view themselves as unprejudiced.
I also wrote to the Omnicom Group ad agency (I have not heard back from them), and to the contract media agency, a Simi Valley anamatronics company that created the ad, The Character Shop. I wrote a brief feedback note: "Chimps dancing an Irish jig is based on a racial slur with a long, hateful history in England and America. If you knew your history you'd be aware that this might be considered offensive."
For my efforts, I received two major flamemails from Rick Lazzarini, animatronics creator (Nightmare on Elm Street, etc), calling me, among other things, a nutcase in need of a life—lacking in reasoning skills— (thus comparing me to a chimp?), my references, full of crap. There's gotta be a cosmic pun in all of this because he's from the staunchly Republican enclave, Simi Valley. The correspondence is as follows:
MH Suggesting chimps can dance the Irish jig is based on an old racial slur...
RL No, it isn't. It's based on the idea that riverdancing is silly and if chimps did it it's even funnier.
MH ....and has a long and hateful history both in England and in America. If you knew anything about history you'd be aware that this could be construed as racist....
RL You have no idea how much I know about history, and for you to base my knowledge of it from one tv commercial shows that your reasoning skills need a lot of polishing up.
MH ...Please check out some of these sites and you'll see why it might offend anyone of Irish descent.
RL *I* am of Irish descent, on my Mother's side. And I'm not offended. Neither is my friend Shane Mahan. So, you're wrong. BTW, you're pulling up this old crap from the EIGHTEEN -SIXTIES, lady! HELLO!? Can you say ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS AGO? What a nutcase. Why do some people feel the need to be offended? It's like you can't wait to be offended just so you can complain about how offended you are. Well, now, looky. Someone paid attention to you. What a waste of energy. I don't get it. Lighten up.
Lazzarini insisted that because some of my anti-Irish references dated back 150 years, they were invalid and obsolete. But racism never goes out of style. That kind of sentiment was rampant in British tabloids in the 1970s and 80s as well. Today, the British tabloids merely update the Irish political cartoons with Muslim trappings.
I replied to Lazzarini: Racism is racism, the date as to when it was first recorded is irrelevant. It still remains as an act of racism. And this particular brand of racism was still being played out in the 20th century. How soon we forget.
Lazzarini went ballistic, "There is not a SINGLE PERSON ALIVE who even REMEMBERS what people called Irish people back in the 1860's! Depicting a chimp an Irish Dance is not the same as saying that the chimp IS irish, you dolt! Now, quit emailing me, you fool, and go be crazy with someone else."
As if history only dated back to 1960, when Lazzarini was born...
Me, I'm aghast when I see the Arby's ad. For one thing, I began to remember my cultural history. "No Irish Need Apply." The only good ______is a dead _______. You fill in the blanks.
How about this one: "An Irishman is a simian turned inside out or a white Negro." The derogatory racial slur, "White Nigger" was used in 19th-century America to describe the Irish. "Smoked Irish" was another term for Blacks (intended to insult both Blacks and Irish).
I remembered how my Irish born grandmother (b. 1893) told me of the British and American presses condemning the Irish as being sub-human and the constant prejudice she faced when she came to America in 1912.
I remember seeing images of all the hateful anti-Irish political cartoons dating back to Oliver Cromwell's time. Cromwell, who in 1559, in a fit of ethnic cleansing, wiped out some 3,000 souls in the village of Drogheda and 2,000 more were slain in Wexford. Cromwell was instrumental in the British policy of kidnapping Irish children—especially girls— shipping them to the Barbados.
In "To Hell or Connaught," Peter Berresford Ellis claims that Cromwell's son, Henry, seized a thousand "Irish wenches" to sell to Barbados. "Planters married white women servants to Blacks in order to transform servants and their children into slaves." Nebraska Dept, of Education
Massive racism and anti-Irish propaganda was so common during the Irish Potato Famine (1845-52) and throughout the early 20th century, that it was considered the norm.
Richard Godfrey writes in "English Caricature, 1620 to the Present," that caricature and the cartoon is "a blunt instrument for the expression of prejudice." Historical Society of Pennsylvania archives
A caption beneath one Irish Potato Famine cartoon read: "The Celts are going, the Celts are going at last. Hurrah! Soon a Celt on the streets of Dublin will be as rare as seeing an Indian on the streets of Manhattan." —British Government, ca. 1847.
In 1860, the first gorilla was brought to the London Zoo. Punch published "The Missing Link," stating that "A creature manifestly between the Gorilla and the Negro... comes from Ireland, whence it has contrived to migrate; it belongs in fact to a tribe of Irish savages: the lowest species of Irish Yahoo."
There is a backlog of at least two century's worth of anti-Irish racism in the news, comparing us to apes and chimpanzees. It's bad enough that we're still culturally portrayed as quick-tempered, maudlin, drunkards and blaggards in films and ads.
What was Arby's thinking? Did Arby's mean to offer up such an overt racist slur upon both those us of of Irish and and of African American descent? If they knew their history, surely they'd be aware that this ad might be offensive to Irish Americans. Don't they know Boycott is an Irish invention?
Please check the Nebraska Dept, of Education site on the Irish famine and racism lesson plan to see why the ad might offend those of Irish or African American descent.
SOME 150-YEAR-OLD QUOTES TO PONDER:
When a powerful group begins to see another people as apes, a disaster is in the making. Any study of racist stereotyping should consider what the dominant group stands to gain. Racism usually begins with economics.
... a cartoon shows the Irish as obese, wasteful, violent, drug abusing monkeys. John Bull (Britain) shows Uncle Sam that he will take care of the troublemaker.
Irish were compared to dancing apes and called "white Negroes'
"The Day We Celebrate" American cartoonist Thomas Nast shows Irish on St. Patrick’s Day as violent, drunken apes.
"Scientific Racism" from Harper’s Weekly, shows the Irish similar to Negroes, and should be extinct.
The British denigrated the Africans in terms similar to those they used about the Irish...
Note Bene:The above are quotes, so is the offensive use of the word Negro instead of African American.
I'm finding very little by way of protest on the internet and that too shocks me. I believe that it is important to stand up against racism and stereotypes as they demean and diminish all of us.
But I did find this blog:
Arby's and racism
John O'Keefe of GINKWORLD writes: in this day and age i am amazed at the lack of respect there is for racial groups - the latest is the new arby's tv ad [created by merkley and partners, which is owned by the "omnicom group"] - the one where monkeys preform an irish step dance to traditional irish music.
the irish had been viewed as being closer to monkeys then to humans; they were called a "simian race" or a "simian people" - throughout recent history cartoonists would portray the irish as having "monkey features" - at one time they were thought to be "hairless monkeys"
i am amazed that an ad agency would think such a display of racism would be funny. a tv commercial where monkeys step dance to irish music, seems a bit over the top - would they have thought about turning the station to a "traditional mexican" music station and have the monkey's dance a traditional mexican dance? how about with doing the same thing with hip-hop? to open old wounds and do something as insulting as showing "monkey's acting irish" seems all right in their eyes.
when i contacted arby's about it - they were sorry, but they could not see what i was talking about. the response was one of "surprise" that any irish person would have contacted them and thought it insulting - the assumption was that the irish are a "humorous group" and "good natured" so they were confused that i would even take the time to call.
AND SOME COMMENTS ON THE GINKWORLD BLOG:
eaamon said...
I thought I was the only one who noticed this ad.
I said to my husband. "That's so horribly racist! But who else will know (other than the ad execs) that's how they portrayed the Irish."
You'll find this kind of slur and attacks disguised as "cutesy" editorials and cartoons when America's great cities such as Boston, Chicago and New York were being built on the backs of immigrants such as the Irish.
Many people don't get the fact that because most Irish people "look white", that they were treated horribly by other whites. The Irish were persecuted, killed, left to starve and a myriad of other atrocities because of their racial heritage.
Racial heritage and racism is not always about color is more about cultural roots.
I did a documentary on black and white women focusing on racial discussion and views-
In one taping we asked the women to look at drawings and artwork from magazines such as Harpers Bazaar and newspapers from the 1800s. Not one white or black women knew what they were looking at.
When they found out they were cartoons of the Irish made to look like simple minded, lurching apes, these women were shocked to find out this sort of racism existed.
One article even referred to the Irish as "N---ers turned inside out".
This commercial is offensive.
Amen.
There was some three pages of dialogue about the Arby's ad on the Chiff & Flipple forum, where some of the offensive cartoons were posted. Check it out.
For what it's worth, I contacted Arby's three times. They responded to my second email only after I'd submitted a customer dissatisfaction survey. Fifteen days later, I got this generic email form Arby's. Hopefully they will be a little more culturally aware during their future ad campaigns.
Dear Arby’s Friend,
We’re sorry to hear of your dissatisfaction with our current advertising.
Many times we choose to use tongue-in-cheek humor and satire in our commercials in an effort to communicate information about the Arby’s menu in an engaging and entertaining manner.
Your opinion is very important to us, and we thank you for taking the time to provide feedback. The last thing we want to do is offend anyone. We have shared your comments with our marketing and advertising teams so they can be considered in the development of future advertising.
Very truly yours,
Arby’s Customer Relations
What I found most profoundly disturbing about this whole Arby's fiasco, is that the animatronics ad creator, Rick Lazzarini not only resorted to time present name calling, but he stated that if a historic series of racist events occurred 150 years ago, it was no longer historically valid. In the world of advertising, Lazzarini's dialogue suggests that one should eradicate and whitewash the past as well as render negative opinions as bogus. What if it had been a Nazi reference, then what?
But it also made me uncomfortable. So I began to explore the basis for my gut reaction: The pseudo-scientific theories of race eugenics and social Darwinism raised its ugly Medusine head.
A sampling of social Darwinism in action— a la Dr. Beddoe's "index of nigrescence"—reads like a string of redneck blason populaire jokes: ...The Irish are an inferior race, genetically prone to violence, incapable of higher mental feats associated with human intelligence. Teaching algebra to an Irishman is like teaching a cat to churn butter. Study of Irish DNA proves they are closer to a weasel or an ape than an Englishman...
However, in my objection to the Arby's jigging apes ad, I find I am in a very small company. Everyone seems to love the Arby's ad— they find it funny. Intellectually I understand that they see the ad as a current pop cultural icon (I should be flattered. Have we arrived yet?) What disturbs me is that people don't get that it is a reference back to a deeper cultural icon based on centuries of racism.
The missing stereotype that begs to be added to the Arby's ad is a minstrel chorus of whiteface jigging chimps.
In Salon, Bob Callahan, a writer whose laser sharp intellect and keen wit I admire, writes:
"As scholars will tell us, the history of American popular culture begins in the violence of the old minstrel stage, where immigrant Irishmen, their faces blackened by the smudge of burnt cork, created new dance forms out of the old Irish step dancing they'd learned back in Ireland. In America the patterns of the step dance were combined with the versions of African-American field dances that these blackface Irish performers were being paid to ape. To accompany these dances, the melodies of Irish fiddle music were blended with the rhythms of ritual African chanting." Salon, P. 2
Certainly romanticism and primitivism became a refuge for "neo-colonialists" including the Celts. as a mode of countering the threat of racial discrimination from the "other" and the emergence of cultural nationalism has played itself out in myriad stereotypes in popular culture, but when popular culture refers back to the origins of Irish racial discrimination in an ad such as Arby's dancing chimps, then it is a racist act, whether intentional or not.
I did write to Arby's but have not had a response. Snooping around on blogsites, I discovered that a few souls have also written to Arby's, but according to their reports, Arby's is taking the Nativist "Know-nothing" stance, and denies allegations that the ad could be considered by some to be racist. They are clearly in need of a course on media literacy. It is important to expose hidden assumptions of those who view themselves as unprejudiced.
I also wrote to the Omnicom Group ad agency (I have not heard back from them), and to the contract media agency, a Simi Valley anamatronics company that created the ad, The Character Shop. I wrote a brief feedback note: "Chimps dancing an Irish jig is based on a racial slur with a long, hateful history in England and America. If you knew your history you'd be aware that this might be considered offensive."
For my efforts, I received two major flamemails from Rick Lazzarini, animatronics creator (Nightmare on Elm Street, etc), calling me, among other things, a nutcase in need of a life—lacking in reasoning skills— (thus comparing me to a chimp?), my references, full of crap. There's gotta be a cosmic pun in all of this because he's from the staunchly Republican enclave, Simi Valley. The correspondence is as follows:
MH Suggesting chimps can dance the Irish jig is based on an old racial slur...
RL No, it isn't. It's based on the idea that riverdancing is silly and if chimps did it it's even funnier.
MH ....and has a long and hateful history both in England and in America. If you knew anything about history you'd be aware that this could be construed as racist....
RL You have no idea how much I know about history, and for you to base my knowledge of it from one tv commercial shows that your reasoning skills need a lot of polishing up.
MH ...Please check out some of these sites and you'll see why it might offend anyone of Irish descent.
RL *I* am of Irish descent, on my Mother's side. And I'm not offended. Neither is my friend Shane Mahan. So, you're wrong. BTW, you're pulling up this old crap from the EIGHTEEN -SIXTIES, lady! HELLO!? Can you say ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS AGO? What a nutcase. Why do some people feel the need to be offended? It's like you can't wait to be offended just so you can complain about how offended you are. Well, now, looky. Someone paid attention to you. What a waste of energy. I don't get it. Lighten up.
Lazzarini insisted that because some of my anti-Irish references dated back 150 years, they were invalid and obsolete. But racism never goes out of style. That kind of sentiment was rampant in British tabloids in the 1970s and 80s as well. Today, the British tabloids merely update the Irish political cartoons with Muslim trappings.
I replied to Lazzarini: Racism is racism, the date as to when it was first recorded is irrelevant. It still remains as an act of racism. And this particular brand of racism was still being played out in the 20th century. How soon we forget.
Lazzarini went ballistic, "There is not a SINGLE PERSON ALIVE who even REMEMBERS what people called Irish people back in the 1860's! Depicting a chimp an Irish Dance is not the same as saying that the chimp IS irish, you dolt! Now, quit emailing me, you fool, and go be crazy with someone else."
As if history only dated back to 1960, when Lazzarini was born...
Me, I'm aghast when I see the Arby's ad. For one thing, I began to remember my cultural history. "No Irish Need Apply." The only good ______is a dead _______. You fill in the blanks.
How about this one: "An Irishman is a simian turned inside out or a white Negro." The derogatory racial slur, "White Nigger" was used in 19th-century America to describe the Irish. "Smoked Irish" was another term for Blacks (intended to insult both Blacks and Irish).
I remembered how my Irish born grandmother (b. 1893) told me of the British and American presses condemning the Irish as being sub-human and the constant prejudice she faced when she came to America in 1912.
I remember seeing images of all the hateful anti-Irish political cartoons dating back to Oliver Cromwell's time. Cromwell, who in 1559, in a fit of ethnic cleansing, wiped out some 3,000 souls in the village of Drogheda and 2,000 more were slain in Wexford. Cromwell was instrumental in the British policy of kidnapping Irish children—especially girls— shipping them to the Barbados.
In "To Hell or Connaught," Peter Berresford Ellis claims that Cromwell's son, Henry, seized a thousand "Irish wenches" to sell to Barbados. "Planters married white women servants to Blacks in order to transform servants and their children into slaves." Nebraska Dept, of Education
Massive racism and anti-Irish propaganda was so common during the Irish Potato Famine (1845-52) and throughout the early 20th century, that it was considered the norm.
Richard Godfrey writes in "English Caricature, 1620 to the Present," that caricature and the cartoon is "a blunt instrument for the expression of prejudice." Historical Society of Pennsylvania archives
A caption beneath one Irish Potato Famine cartoon read: "The Celts are going, the Celts are going at last. Hurrah! Soon a Celt on the streets of Dublin will be as rare as seeing an Indian on the streets of Manhattan." —British Government, ca. 1847.
In 1860, the first gorilla was brought to the London Zoo. Punch published "The Missing Link," stating that "A creature manifestly between the Gorilla and the Negro... comes from Ireland, whence it has contrived to migrate; it belongs in fact to a tribe of Irish savages: the lowest species of Irish Yahoo."
There is a backlog of at least two century's worth of anti-Irish racism in the news, comparing us to apes and chimpanzees. It's bad enough that we're still culturally portrayed as quick-tempered, maudlin, drunkards and blaggards in films and ads.
What was Arby's thinking? Did Arby's mean to offer up such an overt racist slur upon both those us of of Irish and and of African American descent? If they knew their history, surely they'd be aware that this ad might be offensive to Irish Americans. Don't they know Boycott is an Irish invention?
Please check the Nebraska Dept, of Education site on the Irish famine and racism lesson plan to see why the ad might offend those of Irish or African American descent.
SOME 150-YEAR-OLD QUOTES TO PONDER:
When a powerful group begins to see another people as apes, a disaster is in the making. Any study of racist stereotyping should consider what the dominant group stands to gain. Racism usually begins with economics.
... a cartoon shows the Irish as obese, wasteful, violent, drug abusing monkeys. John Bull (Britain) shows Uncle Sam that he will take care of the troublemaker.
Irish were compared to dancing apes and called "white Negroes'
"The Day We Celebrate" American cartoonist Thomas Nast shows Irish on St. Patrick’s Day as violent, drunken apes.
"Scientific Racism" from Harper’s Weekly, shows the Irish similar to Negroes, and should be extinct.
The British denigrated the Africans in terms similar to those they used about the Irish...
Note Bene:The above are quotes, so is the offensive use of the word Negro instead of African American.
I'm finding very little by way of protest on the internet and that too shocks me. I believe that it is important to stand up against racism and stereotypes as they demean and diminish all of us.
But I did find this blog:
Arby's and racism
John O'Keefe of GINKWORLD writes: in this day and age i am amazed at the lack of respect there is for racial groups - the latest is the new arby's tv ad [created by merkley and partners, which is owned by the "omnicom group"] - the one where monkeys preform an irish step dance to traditional irish music.
the irish had been viewed as being closer to monkeys then to humans; they were called a "simian race" or a "simian people" - throughout recent history cartoonists would portray the irish as having "monkey features" - at one time they were thought to be "hairless monkeys"
i am amazed that an ad agency would think such a display of racism would be funny. a tv commercial where monkeys step dance to irish music, seems a bit over the top - would they have thought about turning the station to a "traditional mexican" music station and have the monkey's dance a traditional mexican dance? how about with doing the same thing with hip-hop? to open old wounds and do something as insulting as showing "monkey's acting irish" seems all right in their eyes.
when i contacted arby's about it - they were sorry, but they could not see what i was talking about. the response was one of "surprise" that any irish person would have contacted them and thought it insulting - the assumption was that the irish are a "humorous group" and "good natured" so they were confused that i would even take the time to call.
AND SOME COMMENTS ON THE GINKWORLD BLOG:
eaamon said...
I thought I was the only one who noticed this ad.
I said to my husband. "That's so horribly racist! But who else will know (other than the ad execs) that's how they portrayed the Irish."
You'll find this kind of slur and attacks disguised as "cutesy" editorials and cartoons when America's great cities such as Boston, Chicago and New York were being built on the backs of immigrants such as the Irish.
Many people don't get the fact that because most Irish people "look white", that they were treated horribly by other whites. The Irish were persecuted, killed, left to starve and a myriad of other atrocities because of their racial heritage.
Racial heritage and racism is not always about color is more about cultural roots.
I did a documentary on black and white women focusing on racial discussion and views-
In one taping we asked the women to look at drawings and artwork from magazines such as Harpers Bazaar and newspapers from the 1800s. Not one white or black women knew what they were looking at.
When they found out they were cartoons of the Irish made to look like simple minded, lurching apes, these women were shocked to find out this sort of racism existed.
One article even referred to the Irish as "N---ers turned inside out".
This commercial is offensive.
Amen.
There was some three pages of dialogue about the Arby's ad on the Chiff & Flipple forum, where some of the offensive cartoons were posted. Check it out.
For what it's worth, I contacted Arby's three times. They responded to my second email only after I'd submitted a customer dissatisfaction survey. Fifteen days later, I got this generic email form Arby's. Hopefully they will be a little more culturally aware during their future ad campaigns.
Dear Arby’s Friend,
We’re sorry to hear of your dissatisfaction with our current advertising.
Many times we choose to use tongue-in-cheek humor and satire in our commercials in an effort to communicate information about the Arby’s menu in an engaging and entertaining manner.
Your opinion is very important to us, and we thank you for taking the time to provide feedback. The last thing we want to do is offend anyone. We have shared your comments with our marketing and advertising teams so they can be considered in the development of future advertising.
Very truly yours,
Arby’s Customer Relations
What I found most profoundly disturbing about this whole Arby's fiasco, is that the animatronics ad creator, Rick Lazzarini not only resorted to time present name calling, but he stated that if a historic series of racist events occurred 150 years ago, it was no longer historically valid. In the world of advertising, Lazzarini's dialogue suggests that one should eradicate and whitewash the past as well as render negative opinions as bogus. What if it had been a Nazi reference, then what?
How soon we forget.
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