Roula Seikaly

Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, the Emanuel Nine, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose.

Clenched fists, reminiscent of Olympic medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos as they stood on the medals podium that day in 1968, or perhaps representing the naked physical brutality regularly brought upon African Americans by those who are sworn to serve and protect. Double fingers “speak” without mediation, to the photographer and anyone who sees this diptych, that race relations in “post racial” America are thoroughly fucked, as cameras in phones, on patrol car dashboards, or on the bodies of police officers only now make evident what too many victims already know. This is an antidote to the sickness spit out by media commentators and elected officials following the murders of unarmed civilians.