Hwy. 80 and Wiggins

There is a story that goes along with this one. I'm not sure who the artist is for the current work on this box, but previously it was assigned to an artist named Norman Sisson. I didn't get to see Norman's work because it had already been painted over with primer the first time I came through to document the traffic boxes. I met Norman at Figment Jackson on May 18, when I noticed this wooden "traffic box" that various Figment-goers and children had painted throughout the day. I stopped to talk to Norman, and when I told him about this blog he told me what happened with his box.

(Disclaimer: I am reporting the story as Norman told it to me. I am not taking sides. There was an article in the Clarion-Ledger about it, with a picture of the box. I think it could have been a lot worse, but I am not black and won't even pretend to speak for black people. I can imagine how it might have been seen as offensive. My opinion is that it would've been worse had it been fried chicken or watermelon, but perhaps ribs could be listed in 3rd place in the racial stereotype list with regard to food.)

It seems that Norman was originally assigned the box at Hwy. 80 and Wiggins, after he submitted his idea for the box. He said it was supposed to be themed around Southern cooking. On one side of the box, he had a man cooking barbecue on a grill. On another side, he had a woman eating a barbecued rib. The problem (according to some passers-by) was that while the man cooking was white, the woman eating a rib was black. Some saw this as a stereotype, and complained to the mayor's office, so the city decided to paint over it and give the box to someone else. Norman claimed the primary complainant was mayoral candidate Regina Quinn. This was just a few weeks prior to the primary election, and Norman thought it was a political move. He said she drove by and stopped to talk to him about it, and she was upset. He said she not only complained about what she deemed the stereotypical nature of the artwork on the box, but also that the city was spending its money on this project. Was this a political move? If so, it didn't help her much. Also, the funds for this project come from the Greater Jackson Arts Council (who, by the way, really need to update their website - I love the GJAC, but get some web nerd on that, pronto!) so it's not as if it is taking money away from our much-needed pothole repair budget.

Anyway, I know there are two sides to every story, so I am certainly not taking Norman's side, per se. I asked him if he was going to try again, but he said he was pretty much done with the traffic boxes. He complained that someone had gone and painted ducks on the box that was originally his. When I went back down Hwy. 80 a few weeks ago, I saw what he was talking about.

They're very nice ducks, albeit not the most interesting traffic box in the collection. Also, City of Jackson, you could stand to weed-eat around this box. I nearly got poison ivy trying to get to it. Most of the boxes on Hwy. 80 actually have really nice landscaping around them. This one seemed to be neglected.

What do you think? Was Norman's original artwork a racial stereotype? Was it just art? How do you feel about the ducks?