Black Lives Matter by Rachel Brandoff

Black Lives Matter

This piece was made during the Summer 2020, after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police office, and the subsequent riots that were sparked across the country and world. This piece was inspired by a particular incident that I read about in the local Philadelphia news. A group of activities were peacefully protesting police brutality and excessive force against black and brown people in the Fishtown neighborhood of the city. During the event a large group of people affiliated with the Proud Boys, a bigoted white supremacist organization, gathered on the opposite side of the intersection with baseball bats and presumably weapons as a show of strength and support to the law enforcement personal. Police were at the scene and were thought to be showing unfair treatment to the two groups that were assembled. I had a visceral response to this incident in particular, but also to the idea of these two factions seeming to define the conflicting values present in our culture.