Dehumanization is a tool for those in power to do away with those they see as unfit to exist. On the streets of L.A., the police force has been at war with the brown people of the city for decades – but it’s hardly a chicken-and-egg situation when you look at the history of this city and country. All you have to do is look at what happened during the Zoot Suit Riots or the Watts Riots. Many of the officers that roam the streets of this city see gang members as subhuman, devoid of history and personal context, and feel that they should not have the rights of “normal” citizens. The reality is that contemporary gangs are just the latest boogyman that’s plastered across TV screens worldwide. Renato Garza Cervera‘s new works “Of Genuine Contemporary Beast” draws attention to the fact that MS-13 and 18th St Gangsters are the new beasts of L.A. – amidst the uproar over trophy hunting, his sculpture is even more poignant. He has created these extremely life-like rugs and mounts of gang bangers, framing them in the same terms humans have historically cast on large predators like lions and bears. While there’s no denying that a level of choice comes into it when you’re talking about the gangbanger lifestyle, it’s equally undeniable that certain communities in the US are underserved and almost quarantined from society, meaning that the window of choice may only be open a sliver, if that. Read what Garza Cervera has to say about his sculpture below:
Societies always invent new beasts in order to make others responsible for their problems, to express their fears and to invent them a new cover.
Mass media play a very important role on this world-wide scapegoating process, by presenting some minorities as uncapable of thinking or feeling, delayed and dispensable people.
spotted on Dangerous Minds
cabal23
August 18, 2015 at 10:38 am
I’ll be the first to say it. If only this was reality. These gang members are subhuman trash.
Isolde de Jonge
August 18, 2015 at 9:14 am
Dahmer and Gein would have LOVED these.
Isaac Anger Tate
August 18, 2015 at 8:37 am
He teaches in my school (y)
Jeffery Beckman
August 18, 2015 at 7:32 am
brown sugar coated
Josh Bryant
August 18, 2015 at 7:24 am
Bung…
Frank Callaghan
August 18, 2015 at 6:38 am
Ben Heymann
Tom Cat Man Croft
August 18, 2015 at 1:17 am
Cool tan lines
Carlos Chops Orozco
August 18, 2015 at 1:10 am
Cesar Cabrera
Verdigris113
August 18, 2015 at 1:08 am
I really hope I have simply just taken the bait to a troll, but knowing this site, I fear taking it seriously was indeed the intention. Sadly with that said …
The author as well as the artist’s statement in this post is to literally make no distinction between all minorities and gang members, particularly some of the most violent in existence.
Only in their mentally ill, malcontent minds can they spin that into the opposite sentiment of what is the absolute epitome of racism.
It only takes but a Google search to understand that these gangs have done everything in their “power” to “dehumanize” themselves and their victims and consequently EARN a moniker such as the “boogyman”.
How this website continues to borderline glorify criminals who murder and rape (like their own female members, its called being “sexed in”) and then claims to be for progressives concepts like “social justice” and “feminism” is the very backwards logic of ideology.
” … the police force has been at war with the brown people of the city for decades” < The very logic of a racist who sees color before mindset. Race has always been a red herring exploited by agitating anarchists, criminals, and a sensationalizing media.
"Gang culture" is a cult mentality no different from religious sectarianism, or political extremism. And like any other cult ideology it has nothing to do with race and eats its communities from the inside out, and it is exacerbated by those like the author of this post who refuse to allocate responsibility upon the actions of the criminals because he suffers from the absolute debilitating contemporary form of racism known as white guilt.
If that seems disagreeable, just ask yourself why no one was protesting in Washington Square Park for Amari Brown a SEVEN YEAR OLD BOY who was shot dead on the streets of Chicago this past July? Well because then the protesters would have to acknowledge who was responsible for the murder … GANGS. Apparently minorities deaths are only worth protesting if they were caused by a white police officer … talk about a scapegoat.
In fact only the ideology of this posts author can cause such hypocrisy as to discussing the "dehumanization" of criminals, when in another article proudly flaunt the phrase, "ALL cops are BASTARDS".
The author of this post is most likely beyond saving, but I do hope anyone else who reads this (if they decide to approve it) can see that you can appreciate the music, art, and media of this site, but still be a rational, reasonable, and logical human being.
Matthew Redmond
August 18, 2015 at 12:28 am
wow…i wonder how long its going to take them to kill Renato Garza Cervera.