Monday, October 02, 2006
Nashville: Tagged
According to the Nashville Scene's William Dean Hinton, Music City's graffiti writers "are mostly white, well-off kids who want someone - anyone - to listen."
Mr. Hinton obviously hasn't spent much time in South Nashville. Innumerable street signs, bridges, overpasses, and four-wall structures (public and private, abandoned and occupied) in South Nashville display grandiose graffiti; and I can tell you for a fact that South Nashville's graffiti artists are neither white nor well-off.
Drive down any lane in South Nashville's Antioch or Woobine communities and you'll see some thing upon which "BP" or "SUR 13" has been spray-painted. The persons responsible for this tagging, if you will, belong to two rival Hispanic gangs. This is how the Tennessean's Suzanne Blackwood, reporting from Woodbine, described these folks:
They are territorial and often violent. They tend to carry guns, participate in drug deals and other illegal activity. They are usually made up of young people from poor socioeconomic backgrounds that range in age from 13-21.
William Hinton wants us to believe that the graffiti covering Nashville's nooks and crannies is the product of bored white kids. The folks who live in South Nashville know better, and then some.
Mr. Hinton obviously hasn't spent much time in South Nashville. Innumerable street signs, bridges, overpasses, and four-wall structures (public and private, abandoned and occupied) in South Nashville display grandiose graffiti; and I can tell you for a fact that South Nashville's graffiti artists are neither white nor well-off.
Drive down any lane in South Nashville's Antioch or Woobine communities and you'll see some thing upon which "BP" or "SUR 13" has been spray-painted. The persons responsible for this tagging, if you will, belong to two rival Hispanic gangs. This is how the Tennessean's Suzanne Blackwood, reporting from Woodbine, described these folks:
They are territorial and often violent. They tend to carry guns, participate in drug deals and other illegal activity. They are usually made up of young people from poor socioeconomic backgrounds that range in age from 13-21.
William Hinton wants us to believe that the graffiti covering Nashville's nooks and crannies is the product of bored white kids. The folks who live in South Nashville know better, and then some.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Monday, October 02, 2006 
