Anyone hear of this...rent-a-negro.com...?

[bliss_eternal]

excerpt from wikidpedia:

damali ayo creates dialogue-driven conceptual art that engages contemporary social issues through the media of visual, virtual, written and performance art her work manipulates everyday objects to create a shift in a viewer's perspective on our world and their position within it.

Her most well known work to date is rent-a-negro.com. This satirical web site examined racism in the interactions between black and white people. The site employed parody and satire to engage the viewer in an artificial premise that one could rent a black person for their personal entertainment or to advance their social clout. This work, created in 2003, received over 40,0000 hits per day in its first month. Articles on the web site appeared in Salon.com, Harper's, the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune. This work launched ayo into a national audience.

An excerpt from the site reads:

rent-a-negro.com is a state-of-the-arts service that allows you the chance to promote your connection with a creative, articulate, friendly, attractive, and pleasing African American person. This service comes without the commitment of learning about racism, challenging your own white privilege, or being labeled "radical." In fact, rent-a-negro.com allows you to use your money and status to your advantage! In addition, your dollars go to support the development of African American culture...everyone benefits!
Another popular performance work by damali ayo is living flag where she sits on the street and panhandles for reparations. In this street performance ayo collects reparations from passing white people and pays them out on the spot to passing black people.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damali_ayo

I am impressed with her artistic expression. :hi:

Here's a link to an abc news article written about the artist and her work (specifically rent a negro). :) Enjoy! I find it interesting that those that opposed her work and didn't "get it" said some of the very things we see around here that upset us about insensitivity. Very telling.

[Brewman_Jax]

1. Sure have

and I thought it was brilliant! :rofl: I can empathize in a lot of those. I thought that a counterpart site existed, but I was wrong.

[Brewman_Jax]

2. I found it

http://www.oneblackfriend.com/ which is in the same humor style as Rent-A-Negro.

[bliss_eternal]

3. It is brilliant...!

I LOVE that she did that! Also loved some of her other social experiments--very cool. It's not to know there are people in her age range that are so socially conscious and willing to speak up about it. :applause:

[Karenina]

4. When I first came upon that site

I wanted to sign up as a rentee :rofl: , eminently qualified as I am in dealing with the clueless! :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Damali is BRILLIANT!

[bliss_eternal]

5. To think I could have been charging all these years...

...whenever someone thought I was a rep. for the entire race. :eyes: Think of all we could have earned...;)

[Swamp Rat]

6. yep

:)

[kwassa]

7. Here is another site that is fun "Black People Love Us!"

http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/

Welcome to our website:

Black People Love Us!

We are well-liked by Black people so we're psyched (since lots of Black people don't like lots of White people)!! We thought it'd be cool to honor our exceptional status with a ROCKIN' domain name and a killer website

We hope you think we're as awesome as the Black community does!!

[flamingyouth]

8. That was written up in the NYT Sunday mag last year

That website is hilarious... the pics!! :rofl: