Banksy's New Anti-Racism Artwork Sets Fire To The American Flag
Banksy is making a powerful statement against systemic racism with his latest piece.
The British street artist depicted a shrine to an anonymous Black figure in the new artwork he posted to Instagram on Saturday morning.
In the image, a burning candle has set the American flag on fire.
Scroll across to see the full picture:
A post shared by Banksy (@banksy) on Jun 6, 2020 at 3:30am PDT
Banksy explained in a statement accompanying the image how “at first I thought I should just shut up and listen to black people about this issue.”
“But why would I do that?” he asked. “It’s not their problem. It’s mine.”
“People of colour are being failed by the system. The white system,” Banksy continued. “Like a broken pipe flooding the apartment of the people living downstairs. This faulty system is making their life a misery, but it’s not their job to fix it. They can’t — no-one will let them in the apartment upstairs.”
“This is a white problem,” Banksy concluded. “And if white people don’t fix it, someone will have to come upstairs and kick the door in.”
Banksy also changed his Instagram profile picture to a black circle:
Protests have spread worldwide following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week. Floyd, a Black man, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes.
Some 4,000 people are reportedly expected to attend a rally in Banksy’s home city of Bristol, in southwest England, later Saturday.
Banksy has used his art to tackle racism on multiple previous occasions.
In 2014, authorities in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, erroneously believed his satirical commentary on immigration, below, contained “offensive and racist remarks” — and scrubbed the potentially-valuable mural from the wall.
Banksy, who has never been officially identified, last month donated this painting to Britain’s National Health Service in honor of health care...