American Statistic
(tag 594)
2021

Assemblage (10.75” x 8.75” x 1.5”)

Artist description:

This piece comments on the struggles of African-Americans and the prejudice and pressure they constantly have to deal with as the result of racism in our culture.

Here we see a vintage early 1960’s photograph of an African-American teenager on a football field. He was assigned team shirt number 13. The number ‘13’ has been historically associated with ‘bad luck.’ This young man was negatively labeled from the very start of his joining the game.

We see the artist’s use of a pressed tin photograph frame, a metaphor of ‘applied pressure.’ The use of copper wire suggests removal from society that he experiences as a result of racism.

In the United States, African-Americans are often victims of violent crime. African-Americans account for only 13% of the US population, yet they are victims of 15% of all nonfatal violent crimes and nearly half of all homicides. Homicide is the leading cause of death for young African-American males aged 10 – 24. Such numbers are shameful American statistics. Given the fact that this photograph is now over 60 years old, one wonders if this young man became another American statistic.