The KKK is Coming to Indy
There is a new exhibit coming to the Marion County Public Library this week that is definitely going to stir a lot of controversy, but more importantly I hope it stirs a lot of thought.
It is called “Kin Killin Kin”. Yes, the initials are KKK.
And no, we’re are not talking about something out of “Birth of Nation” or “Roots”. We are talking about artist James Pate telling a story that if it were not tragic, it would be almost laughable.
It tells the story of urban youth violence and the fact that more African-American males are more likely to be killed by other Black males than anyone else. Here in Indianapolis where blacks make up about 27 percent of the population, for the first half of this year blacks have made up approximately 70 percent of the murder victims and in cases where the racial identity of both the victim and suspect were know, blacks killing other blacks were at least a third of the murders.
As my wife once told me “who needs the Klan to kill us when we have each other”?
Pate’s images make that same point, however as an artist he goes further in what is described as a “visual call-to-action to find solutions to youth and gun violence in the community and created in hopes of engaging our youth and community in acknowledging that harsh reality of gun violence, and to dialogue positive alternatives and solutions towards negative behavior.”
If you get a chance, check it out. I think this is pretty powerful stuff.
