Workingmen's

Workingmen's

Thursday, November 27, 2014

(late) Capitalists: The puppet masters

I'm still struggling with a concise thesis for Khan's Scottsboro, Alabama prints but I am starting to realize some key themes and motives within the prints that I can kind of throw out there in this posting. There are two linoleum cuts that really stand out in terms of the thesis I'm fleshing out. The first one on page 82/83 and the second on page 83/83, quote "The bosses to stop the growing unity of white and black workers..""The propaganda of race hate was prepared." The first image is that of the bosses sitting around a table with a paper labeled "Niggers are born rapists" and the second image is the Scottsboro boys juxtaposed below a depiction of King Kong labeled "fiends" and "guilty rape."
A lot can be interpreted from these two images in terms of the emotions that are meant to be evoked or the message Khan was trying to send; however, in terms of an arguable thesis I would say that Khan uses these two particular images, and others throughout the text, to make the following statement. The downfall of a America's misconstrued capitalist system can only be brought about through the solidarity of the wage-laboring class, this includes whites, blacks, immigrants and women. Race hate within the working class is the means in which the boss or the capitalist both allots "limited power" to those lesser than himself (white patrol groups i.e. KKK and/or the police) and how he restricts the upward unifying mobility of the black (and white) working class.

2 comments:

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  2. I think your observations are interesting, and the images as well as your thesis are both very strong. I would like to see you examine how these same concepts are further emphasized through the visual depictions and representations present within these linoleum cuts. Along these lines, I think it is also important to look at the text and images side by side to see what connections and messages they convey.

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