only cell phone and briefcase-carrying women are to be respected?!

Racist?? Really? Because I look at it and it looks like a dedication to the hookers who used to plague Times Square, back in the 80s. lol

“It’s a celebration B***HES!”

Is it racist to reflect the world you see around you? So you’re saying that if I paint an image of the girls I grew up with and see everyday is racist? Should I tell THEM to stop dressing that way because they are being “stereotypical” or being racist? They seem to be happy with their appearance and are found attractive by someone.

However, you can’t blame people for having a different point of view, but they have to understand that everyone in the world doesn’t have to live to THEIR standards and expectations of what empowerment and beauty is.

For instance, what does a CELL phone have to do with intelligence, sophistication and upward mobility? I know plenty of teenagers with cell phones, that doesn’t mean they are gainfully employed, its just part of the culture now. Maybe a cell phone meant something in the 80’s and 90’s when a cell phone meant you were doing well, but times have changed. You don’t have to be a business man or in my neighbor hood, a drug dealer or high roller, to have one. I believe being constantly seen holding your phone and looking at a PDA, or smart phone these days, makes you look rather pretentious. That’s just me though, you might think it makes you look important.

Finally, what no one really touches on, is the power art has to influence dialogue over issues swept under the rug in America. The artists aren’t appreciated in minority communities, its more of an artisan skill almost, where creativity has to have an immediate use to pay off. Why aren’t these people being appreciated in their own communities?

I applaud the artist for showing that the women she sees in the Caribbean are strong, beautiful and desirable. She is saying they don’t have to fit into the “ideal American beauty” vision we are bombarded by in the media outlets.

But why am I even commenting on this? BlackPlanet is inhabited by the same type of people. Maybe the pundits getting on their soap boxes and wagging heir fingers need to get on social websites like BlackPlanet and see for themselves. There are smart people on here, but there are also people that don’t see a value in education and have decided to lower their standards. You can see profiles with intelligent professionals and a girl promoting herself as a “dancer” or just showing off her ass in every picture. Not to mention, that BlackPlanet tries to empower and on the opposite side of the same coin, degenerate the culture with the same type of gossip and non-news that riddles the white media. They seem to be no better then their white counterparts, they are doing the same thing with a different demographic. The biggest headline deal with gossip or a “hot button” new item about racism.

This artist is celebrating who we really are.

WOW….It’s Sh*t like this is why i’m glad i don’t live in NY,A Celebration of Women of Color,if this is a Celebration of Women of Color i say don’t hold back next time,i say go all out and paint the crackhead skank,the trembling heroin addict and try to pass that off as beautiful,i wish that guy from Beat Street was still Around(Spit).

Sophia Maldonado is one gutsy, original and creatively clever artist for this bold 42nd Street representation of the “round-the-way” Caribbean feminine. The truth forever stirs emotional uneasiness, discomfort and resentment when publicly slapped in the face with it. Allow that mural to remain and to do what it do. It’s Beautiful!

If she felt she was dissing ‘us’ caribbean women with that mural she failed. Next time she should draw black americans, along with double wide trailer trash white women standing in lines collecting welfare and food bank handouts. Most if not all of my Caribbean people are exotic and beautiful. Stick to what you know which is being a typical spic that pops out kids from an early age, tying hector, juan and chavez down. And another thing the West Indian looks way better than blonde haired species she drew in the picture so really what point was she trying to make in this crayon scribble drawing.

It’s one thing to ask society to accept people as they are, and treat them with common decency.

It’s another when people who refuse to act within bounds of common decency, yet expect to be treated as though they do.

And then it’s yet another thing to demand to be treated with RESPECT, yet cannot maintain standards of common decency themselves.

The women she depicts, look like women who’ve been abused and tortured. Both by drugs and human hands.

The best the artist could ever hope for, is pity for them.

Respect, is given to those who have accomplished something.

Common decency, is given without much thought or consideration. It’s everyone’s due.

But when you offend common sensibility and by overt intention, it should surprise no one that you get something else for your efforts….

LOL

WTF that one ugly azz fkd up mural what is this idiot really serious first of all carribean women do not look like that nor do american. LOL, the street women comment fit that sh it to a t.

Art my azz that fart compliment my azz more like insult. This idiot could have shown carribean women enjoying theirselves or something more positive dam….

How is this racist , I’m not seeing it.This looks like something she saw and decided to draw/paint.You have two woman one with pale skin blond hair and dark skin and black curled/frizzy hair.

This represents what she saw , which can be seen in most cities in the U.S./Caribbean/ or any other place on earth.Is it offensive to woman maybe ? But I’m not seeing or getting a message saying this is how this woman sees every Caribbean women.

Everyone who’s mad missed the point (badly) in what she was showing.She showing that even though most would call the woman ugly , the artist herself thinks their beautiful woman.

Pointless anger over art… if your constantly looking for racism . you can find it in anything.

Look for the subliminal

Look at the whyte womans left leg and what is her knee on down iz a DYCK.

I’m lookin for otha nasty shyt. Its somethin about the whyte womans face somrthin iz there

don’t look like any caribbean women i knew and grew up with, look more like american black women.

Some street woman do have obscene tattoos with words on them.It’s nothing new and if the artist says she thinks their beautiful woman despite the way they look and what they do.

Again sexiest maybe , racist I’m not seeing it.As an artist you learn to draw what you see , not what you think could offend someone.

Think that the artist is a talented cartoonist/caricaturist,… but, all the other hoopla surrounding the work itself sounds kind of contrived by everyone commenting in the video footage,(including the artist herself). I don’t think it originally was meant to be that deep,.. but, I bet the artist will get some serious attention buzz & new commissions as a result of all this hype. Maybe she’ll even do a book of varied works that show way more examples of Black & Latina female physical beauty & diversity. That would be REALLY interesting artistically!

Well, I just left BedStuy a few weeks ago and that’s tame. I’ve seen beauties wit tats on their tits. One reason I left.

i dont see her work as racist. the way i see it is that she was painting what she sees. i personally have seen women that look like that where im from. i agree with ljspaceman if u keep looking for racism in everything u will constantly find it.

Wow, the artist herself is hot. Im sorry but i would like a carribean woman like the artist.

Thanks.

@Raheem_nyc….If they dont look like carribean women you were raised around, you musta been raised on a deserted Island, or kept locked in the house all day. Cause they damn sure like look carribean chicks on there way to a bashment lol

Art is Subjective, while I support the artists freedom, its interesting that art like this, as well as artist like Kara Walker always recieve the spotlight. Theres definitely an agenda at hand, whether the artists intends to buy into or not.

Well I don’t see anything wrong with the mural we all see art different from each other about 30 years ago people were saying the same thing about ERNIE BARNES and I don’t know if anyone is familiar with his murals but they were the ones that were used on the T.V.Show Good Times thats who was actually painting all those pictures as a matter of fact he appeared on an episode as a the street hustler(GOON)who roughed up JJ & James in hallway in the middle of the night.But as for this debate I checked out some of the blogs below and one in particular where a sister started talking about the ethnicity of the Hispanic race what she fails to realize is that people of color make up for 85% of the Hispanic Race.there are as many people of color that come from Spain & Mexico as the Caribbean and United States all due to Slavery they just don’t get acknowledged African Mexicans or as they prefer Afro-Mexicans arrived in Mesoamerica (Mexico) 1519 as slaves to be servants just like the ones everywhere else some rebelled,escaped and went to Belize,Puerto Rico,Cuba,Brazil, while the rest settled in Yucatan,Costa Chica,Guerrero,Huatulco,Oaxaca,.But in the eyes of the Mexican population our people aren’t perceived as a Community which is a shame but like it or not people of Latino descent are our Brothers & Sisters eventhough they don’t acknowledge it because we are a shade darker then they are so we should’nt be offended these our people from both perspectives……..PEACE

@odoggz, that’s exactly what I was thinking too!

Damn, the girl said: “…There’s nothing more latina than my FACE and my name.” Some people (so-called latinas included) would disagree – especially since there is no such thing as a ‘latina.’

I think that the art style my throw some people off and it is a weird choice of topic to draw. Again, this is national news because? I saw a report on channel 7 about this.

Lastly, Lisa Evers likes me. If she were not on the job, I know I could have gotten that…