I should preface this by saying that I am not an art person. Never have been, never will be. I think it's pretty and I enjoy it, but I don't get it. I can interpret a constitutional amendment 10 different ways but I can't tell you anything about light, composition, form or anything. That having been said, I just noticed a painting in the bathroom in College Hall today and was rather bothered by it.

The title of it is "Ten Little Indian Boys: An Ode to Thanksgiving." We'll overlook the racist undertones there and move right on to the painting intself. It basically consists of 10 little brown figures with feathers sticking up off of their heads thrown randomly throughout the canvas. This in and of itself is problematic. But then I noticed a crucifix in the background and thought to myself "what the hell is that doing there?" Then I noticed the noose hanging from the tree in the center... and the hearts on the chests of the little brown racist stereotypes with sharp shapes sticking out of them... You see where I'm going with this? 10 Little Indians being slaughtered by Christians, an ode to Thanksgiving, the true story of Thanksgiving.

Now, this representation could be taken in one of two ways: 1. being celebratory of the conquest of the native peoples of America, or 2. being a sarcastic representation criticizing the celebration of Thanksgiving. I'm hoping for the latter but honestly my first reaction was one of appallation. I'm just surprised that this type of painting is displayed in a public bathroom in College Hall while there is a representation of the Smith gates in the winter in the bathroom next door. Furthermore, if it bothered me, a white Bostonian, what effect would it have on others who do not share my ethnic background? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, maybe I burned far too much time at work staring at a painting in the bathroom, maybe there really isn't a point to thsi post other than to simply express my confusion. I don't know. I'm sure that it was not meant as a celebration of the colonization of America and the subsequent attacks on Native Americans, but it is an extremely charged piece, particularly for its placement in an administrative building's bathroom.