It appears that a Colorado street artist known as Sabo may be the person responsible for erecting controversial political signs at several Denver bus stops this week criticizing Kamala Harris’s border policies.
The yellow signs are replicas of those once posted near the southern California border for decades featuring a silhouette of a running family that cautioned motorists of fleeing migrants crossing the road.
The other imitated segregationist era signs that directed black people to the back of the bus to make way for white people, but instead said “Blacks must sit at the back of the bus. Kamala’s migrants sit in the front.”
The political rhetoric is comparable to what Joe Biden once said about Mitt Romney wanting to put black people back in chains. The difference is Biden was never accused of being a racist for saying it.
Yet Sabo was before the identity and political motive of the sign maker was even revealed. The Denver Post reported one claim that two white women were seen with a ladder in the same area as the signs on Colfax Ave the morning they were discovered.
And yet the signs are not racist.
The implication of these signs is that Harris’s border policies would put the needs of migrants before black people.
They conjure up an age-old racist system as a way to compare Harris’s policies to that same practice.
The signs did not say blacks should sit in the back of a bus, but suggested that’s what she is doing by putting migrants’ needs ahead of U.S. citizens.
Some suggest the signs would be less offensive if it said “everyone,” instead of black people.
True, but then it’s no longer a metaphor of the racist practice of making black people sit at the back of the bus, and the point of such practice as being racist is lost.
Westword appears to be the first media outlet to link Sabo to the street art:
An Instagram account linked to the website for Sabo, an artist known for controversial stencil works and signs that criticize progressive policies and candidates, posted a photo of another “Caution. Kamala’s Illegals” sign at around 11 a.m. on August 29. This sign was in Aurora, at the intersection of East Colfax Avenue and Nome Street.
That intersection is near an apartment complex that was recently shut down by Aurora for city health and building code violations. The apartment building’s owners said the complex was taken over by gangs of Venezuelan migrants, making maintenance impossible; the city disputed that.
Sabo’s Instagram account where he’s posted the signs can be seen here, his X account here.
Colorado’s leftist political elite went into a feeding frenzy over the obviously political signs.
Gov. Polis called the iconic signs horrible and racist images, although the caution signs were a response to hundreds of collisions between vehicles and immigrants crossing roads near the border.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston threatened to hold those responsible for “racist behavior” against … well, we’re not sure.
“Denver is a welcoming and inclusive city that gives opportunity to people from all walks of life, & we will fight to ensure that remains the case,” Johnston said.
https://t.co/8B4mrO9P5I pic.twitter.com/r5ficlHoy8
— Pathofmostresistance (@Pathofmostresi1) August 30, 2024
Are Democrats really saying the mere suggestion that Jim Crow-era racial preferences would be in practice today to benefit one race over another is in itself being racist?
We would agree that preferring any race before another in terms of government programs is racism, but accusing someone of pursing such a policy is not in itself being racist, but calling out racism.
Or as some might call it political street art.