From: helfman@aero.org (Robert S. Helfman)
Subject: Re: Anti-Gang Ad Controversy #1: The Story
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 03:30:21 GMT

In article <448m=sk.barnhart@netcom.com> barnhart@netcom.com writes:
>Debate grows over city ad campaign
>By Bob Seidenberg, City Editor
>Evanston Review / August 13, 1992
>
>Despite new opposition in the African-American community, Evanston
>Human Relations officials announced plans Tuesday to proceed with a 
>controversial ad campaign aimed at deglamorizing street gangs.
>
>"The campaign's target audience is teens who might join gangs," said
>Owen L. Thomas, the commission's executive director in a release 
>issued Tuesday.
>
>"The purpose is to provoke them to change their perception that gangs
>are cool or hip, by using dramatic facts about gang murders."
>
>Rucker said the ad's intent is not to portray African American males
>in a negative light; rather, that the campaign marks the first stage
>in an ongoing campaign to deglamaorize gangs.
>

First, let me mention that I'm new to this newsgroup and that this
item might have been discussed before. (Also, for those of you for
whom it might matter, I'm a white who lives in a fairly affluent
Black neighborhood of L.A.)

A couple of years ago, Robbie Conal, a (white) agit-prop artist in L.A.
was commissioned by a Black civic activist (Frederick Jones) from 
Inglewood to design a poster. 

Conal's work is probably known to millions in L.A. because
his 'urban guerrillas' paste his stuff on traffic signal controllers and
other public spots all over town. (One of his more recent classics shows
Chief Justice Rehnquist with a nauseous look on his face and the
tag-line "Gag me with a coat-hanger" - Calleme con un gancho [en espa#ol]
in the other version).

Conal's anti-gang poster shows three sets of black men's arms shaking hands.
The left three are on a blue background and have typically Crip (Cuz)
jewelry and warm-ups. The right three are on a red background and have
typically Blood jewelry and warm-ups. (It's so 'on' that the Blood fingernails
are a bit raw while the Crip fingernails are perfectly manicured. If you're
from L.A., this is specifically local stuff. BTW, the arms in question
belong to the nephews of Frederick Jones, the sponsor. ) 

The words "We're All One Color" appear, one word at a time, vertically
down the poster, and "Stop the Killing" is across the bottom on a yellow
background.

The power of this poster is striking, and when I saw a repro of it in the
L.A. Times, I contacted the activist who sponsored it to: 1) Get a copy for
myself to frame, and 2) contribute some ducats toward getting more printed. 

(Someone has told me that this poster appears on the dorm wall of one of the
characters on "A Different World"; I've never seen the show and can't verify
this.)

When the poster first started appearing around L.A., it was seriously 
poo-pooed, but it apparently triggered a lot of thinking among O.G.'s.
The Blood/Crip truce which came to fruition at the time of the
recent L.A. rebellion/insurrection/riot/disturbance/unpleasantness
(pick your own terms, please, I'm just using it for a time reference
and really don't want to debate what to call it) had really begun to be
discussed among O.G.'s many months before.

My point is that the poster got people thinking - the RIGHT people.
No one who has the slightest perception of the streets would look at
this poster and say "All Black People are Gangsters", any more than
someone seeing an anti-skinhead poster should say "All White Teenagers
are Skinheads". To me, the poster said "it's sad that Bloods and Crips
are killing each other, 'cuz they ARE all one color. Can't we (even
better, can't THEY) do something about that?"

Last week, I was driving past Jim Gilliam Park (a big 
grassy park and rec center at the foot of the Baldwin Hills 
[where I live] at the far northwestern edge of what the
media seem to think is "South Central") when I saw a hundred or so
homies, their ladies, and their kids barbecuing. What struck me
so powerfully was that most of the guys were wearing RED and BLUE
together. Two years earlier, I saw a similar Blood picnic on a Sunday
in the same park and it was a sea of Red. If you had been here in L.A.,
here in the Baldwin Hills during the last three months, you 
would have noticed the incredible quiet at night. I haven't heard a
gunshot for weeks, maybe a month. The truce IS working, and you can't
argue with success. THIS ad campaign had its effect, and the one
in Evanston might have its effect too.