In the decision to tear down the billboard for the Summer Eats Program, we have, once again, an example of intimidation driving public decisions.
The racial stereotypes the writer of an Aug. 10 My Turn described seeing in the billboard’s imagery were creaking and antiquated 50 years ago. They had no currency in that day except as relics of a foolish past era. The fact that it was those stereotypes that came to mind to her, in 2022, is nearly laughable, except that the writer has now served to preserve and even reanimate stereotypes that were long down the road to oblivion.
When I first looked at the billboard I saw a pretty little girl with a beautiful smile, inviting other kids to join her for lunch, holding a slice of watermelon, nature’s perfect response to the thirsty heat of summer time; because the child was Black, the writer saw sickening subterfuge, a deliberate desire to demean.
Who’s got the perception problem here? Who’s carrying and trumpeting, deeply unhealthy baggage? In the front page Recorder article announcing the removal of the billboard, a public official, seeming to struggle in justifying the decision, wondered “whether the parents knew … how that image might have be used.”
I would point out that the girl’s parents certainly don’t yet know that their child’s image in Greenfield has been ripped down. It has, in other words, most assuredly been “used,” used by people desperate to avoid being the target of hysterical accusations of racism and, as a result, using her image to make empty gestures that actually deepen the ugliness of social discourse.
Our society is under great legitimate pressure to address our heritage of racial prejudice. It is an important and essential pressure but one easily abused. The work of facing and healing our nation’s heritage is a long and difficult one. It is never served when decisions spring from the pressure exerted by people whose assumed finer moral judgment is used as a weapon.
I wonder if anyone in Greenfield has the courage to approach the girl’s parents and see what they think of our town’s action? Finally, for them, their daughter’s image is not a racial issue but a personal one. If any of you have the courage to approach them, brace yourself.
Stephen Hussey lives in Greenfield.