Facts of life at an arts school are not always respected in a city that has become hotbed of crime. At CUNY Brooklyn College, home to such institutions as Williamsburg High School of the Performing Arts, students are tasked with taking pictures to keep their online collections up to date. A campus mural might feature an elk on the side of a tree, or another picture might depict an architect of a real apartment building over a caricature of a migrant worker selling limp lettuce in the window.
But recently, students have been using the image of the piggy bank on the side of the metal building as a means of mocking community members of color. Well-known social commentator and activist Feminista Jones helped students draw up their banner mocking the government shutdown by transforming their mural into a giant poop. After the fact, students were surprised to see how much this could offend the most sensitive members of the community.
This graffiti is a slap in the face to all of the hardworking immigrants from our community. We are a community that, often, we forget, will be a part of our working classes. Being rejected because of a disgraceful picture will always hurt. We will always suffer because of these kind of social injustices.