phukin white people (part i)

i’m sure this will become a running thing…

…but today we’ll just cover the one guy.

when i was growing up i could never find shit with my name on it. if mom had spelled it “shawn” or “shaun” i’d have had ZERO issue. you’d see that everywhere. on shirts. on stickers. on those coveted mini license plates at any number or touristy destinations or the little bottle with the penny in it. but “sean”? nope. literally nowhere. never mind that it’s the CORRECT spelling of the fucking name, we had to go with the more phonetic ellis island version. the one more white people knew how to say in the 70’s & 80’s. never mind this was career highlight reel eras for both sean penn AND sean connery. no dice on the tourist stuff.

so i know the pain of the mispronounced and misspelled name.

now, enter this guy:

he is maori activist and artist tāme iti. there was a painting of him (but not by him) hanging in a hotel lobby of a new zealand hotel. it had a caption on the bottom, painted by the artist of the paining, but with his name misspelled. he took it upon himself to right the wrong.

i would have done the same thing.

clearly this was no happy accidental run in as he had paint and a video crew in tow. needless to say, it’s made the rounds online. but the owner of the painting that loaned it to the hotel for display was this guy…

he’s trying to PRESS CHARGES on tāme iti for vandalism. the original artist has apologized to tāme for the egregious error and says he feels the correction at the hands of the man himself ups the value and significance of the work. the owner disagrees. the cops? well they say they’re sure a report has been filed, but can’t seem to find it, so it’s probably just making its way through the proper channels and should be findable shortly.

let’s hope that said report’s brief absence is more indefinite than brief.

phukin white people.