A picture’s worth a thousand words
October is here, rent is due, and it’s time to start thinking about your Halloween costume (no sexy whistleblowers, please). In this week’s issue, Pete Souza wants to see photos from Trump’s Ukraine call, I have a question for you about how to combat hate groups hijacking symbols, and we’ll take a look at Kehinde Wiley’s first-ever public art installation.
Yours,
A picture’s worth a thousand words
Pete Souza, who was the former Chief Official White House photographer for President Obama as well as a White House photographer for President Reagan, called for photos of President Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Zelensky to be released because the images could provide “context.”
“When the President of the United States makes a phone call to another head of state, that is something that should be visually recorded,” Souza wrote in an Instagram caption of the above photo of Obama. “Congress should demand to see photographs of his phone call with Ukraine President Zelensky. It could provide information, context and mood: who else is in the room; where in the residence did the call take place; what was he wearing; is he joking or not.”
Searching the White House Flickr account for photos dated July 25, when the call took place, shows only photos from the White House State Leadership Day event, a Pledge to America’s Workers event, and Full Honors Ceremony at the Pentagon. 📸
How do you fight against hate groups hijacking innocuous symbols?
Last week, the Anti-Defamation League listed the OK gesture as a racist hand sign. In a blog post, the ADL noted that while the sign’s association with white supremacists began as a 4chan hoax and most uses of the symbol are “entirely innocuous and harmless,” it has since grown into a “sincere expression of white supremacy.”
It reminds me a lot of what happened to Pepe, the cartoon frog created by artist Matt Furie that white supremacists claimed as their own in 2016. Once a sort of unofficial internet mascot, Pepe became too hot to touch after he was labeled a hate symbol, despite the fact that most uses of Pepe were not at all racist or anti-Semitic. Furie fought to reclaim his cartoon, writing an op-ed for Time and symbolically killing Pepe off in a comic strip before bringing him back to life as a symbol of love, but it’s been an uphill battle. When the New York Times wrote on Pepe’s use as a symbol for Hong Kong protestors earlier this year, they noted it had nothing to do with the so-called “alt-right.”
I’m generally opposed to giving up symbols to Nazis because I think it gives them power. Don’t let white supremacists steal your memes or your hand gestures or otherwise dictate the terms of culture. At the same time, the meaning of symbols is fluid and hate symbols are rightfully a sensitive subject.
I’m interested to hear your thoughts. What do you think is the best way to keep hate groups from hijacking symbols? You can respond directly to this email with your comments. ❓
Zuck thinks breaking up Big Tech will make fighting election interference harder
In leaked audio of a meeting with Facebook employees obtained by the Verge, founder Mark Zuckerberg said he thinks breaking up technology companies will make election interference more likely “because now the companies can’t coordinate and work together.”
Zuckerberg also mentioned Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who’s campaigned on breaking up Big Tech. Zuckerberg said he’d expect a legal challenge under a Warren administration and that it would “suck,” but that he expected Facebook could beat it, saying, “if someone’s going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight."
Warren responded to the news tweeting, “What would really ‘suck’ is if we don’t fix a corrupt system that lets giant companies like Facebook engage in illegal anticompetitive practices, stomp on consumer privacy rights, and repeatedly fumble their responsibility to protect our democracy.” 👾
JVN endorses Warren
“Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van Ness endorsed Warren for president last week, citing the cost of healthcare.
“The moment I knew I was endorsing @ewarren was last month when I misplaced my HIV meds,” Van Ness tweeted. “It cost $3500 to replace them out of pocket with ‘amazing’ plantinum [sic] level insurance. Healthcare shouldn’t be for profit ever, it’s a human right.”
JVN got a call from Warren herself, thanking him for the endorsement. Van Ness was also in Washington last week to talk about the Equality Act with Pelosi, who shared this photo of the two of them on the Speaker’s balcony. 📱
Kehinde Wiley debuted a statue in Times Square
It’s called “Rumors of War” and Wiley, the artist behind Barack Obama’s official portrait at the National Portrait Gallery, unveiled it Friday on Broadway between 46th and 47th Streets. It will be on display in New York City until it will move to its permanent home outside the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Va., in December.
“Today we say yes to something that looks like us,” Wiley said at the unveiling, according to the New York Times. “We say yes to inclusivity. We say yes to broader notions of what it means to be an American.”
True to Wiley’s style, the statue mashes up classical art tropes with contemporary black figures. “Rumors of War” shows a rider in sneakers and a hoodie but it’s modeled after a statue of Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart in Richmond. 🐎
Political typography on Netflix
This is a public service announcement that season two of the Netflix series “Abstract” is out, and the episode with type designer Jonathan Hoefler touches on the rise of Gotham as the de facto typeface of politics. Hoefler said in the last House race, 69 campaigns used Gotham and it has “become the typeface that politicians use because it has a track record of success.”
Scott Thomas, the design director for Obama’s 2008 campaign, said in the episode that Gotham “really did speak of American values” and showed a “boldness” and “candor” when used to spell out the word “Change.”
“It comes down to what is the emotional quality that we’re trying to say with this word?” Thomas said. 🔠
The impeachment inquiry gave the peach emoji new life
ICYMI, last week I published a story on the spike in peach emoji usage after Speaker Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry into Trump. You can read my story here. 🍑
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