As to be expected, there are some people in South Bronx who don't care for Banksy's use of the word "ghetto" in the piece he painted yesterday that featured a little boy tagging a wall while his butler held his cans. Borough president Ruben Diaz Jr., who days before was praising the artist for bringing his Ronald McDonald sculpture to the Bronx, released a statement in which he expressed disappointment that the artist chose to "recycle outdated negative stereotypes" instead of creating a positive piece about the "New Bronx." The statement lists all the ways in which the borough has improved over the years and vehemently declares that the Bronx is "not Ghetto 4 Life."
While people have the right to be upset at whatever they want and Ruben Diaz Jr. did the right thing by speaking up for his borough, they are only focusing on half of the art piece. Diaz Jr. never mentions the fact that the subject in the piece writing the message is a rich Caucasian boy with a butler. Whether you like his art or not, to suggest that Banksy is simply calling the Bronx "ghetto" while only commenting the portion of the piece that supports that argument isn't exactly fair.
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[via Gothamist]
