My response to Yazmany Arboleda's rant on the Huffington Post: It wasn't me

Peace Fam,

It’s been a busy few weeks, and I haven’t been able to post as much as I usually do. So tonight I’m on the site, reading up on comments and looking at the new pingbacks and links that folks have created to the site- it’s always good to know when someone has your name in their mouth, you know?

It was during this time that I realized the self proclaimed artist Yazmany Aboledam who set up an “art exhibit” in dtown NY, only to be dragged out in cuffs about 30 minutes after opening the front doors, because of such as images as this, was pissed at yours truly:

Yes, that says “Nappy headed hos” above the Obama girls

There were pictures of erect black penises, and nooses hanging from the ceiling…all of these things under the title “The Assassination of Barack Obama”.

I covered it on the blog here, but I didn’t write any opinion pieces about it. Unlike some people, I happen to think ya’ll have at least half a brain and can resonably come to your own conclusions in certain situations.

This was one of them.

I didn’t feel the need to “scream racism”, as I am often accused of doing (unfairly, I might add).

So imagine my surprise when I discovered that someone on the Huffington Post had written an article with a link back to a peice I wrote a few weeks ago. As it turns out, it was the artist himself, in a piece he sent to the HP clarrifying the brilliance of his artwork for those who didn’t seem to get it. It begins like this:

In the past several weeks I have been called a racist, a sexist, and a media whore. I have been criticized, critiqued and questioned (not the least of which involved the NYPD and the United States Secret Service).

The word racist, right there for all to see, is a link to my site, and a link to the coverage I posted then, as discussed above.

Wow, I thought to myself, I got someone’s attention, and it’s on the Huffington Post! But, something didn’t feel right. Why? Because even when a sista is flamin’ pissed, she can remember what she did and didn’t say, what she did and didn’t write.

I never, at any point, ever, called Arboleda a racist, or his “art” a racist act. I never said I was angry or offended by it. I never said he should have been arrested. I never said that someone should assassinate him.

I got an email tip with photos of Arboleda’s “work” and arrest. Wanting to get more info out to the people, but rushing to get out of the house, I posted info from other sources, (with credit, of course).

The point is, I, Sable Verity, of sound mind, never wrote about Arboleda, nor did I ever call him a racist.

The coverage, which was sent to me via email (which is stated as well), begins like this:

A controversial art exhibit was raided and shut down before it could be view in NYC yesterday.

Do me a favor. Copy and paste those words into a Google search browser and hit enter. How many hits come up that begin with those exact words, excluding the hits to the Sable Verity?

But if you’re asking what I’m thinking, no he’s not a racist. He might be prejudiced, but I don’t know him. What he is for certain, however, isan opportunist. He may not like those words (even though they’re much more PC than ‘media whore’), but by nature of the business, that is what he is. He took the issue of race and the election, and he put it in a form that would get attention, that would get people talking, that would get people thinking…

Isn’t that what art is supposed to do?

Now some of you may be gettin’ ready to scream at me, because it might sound like I support what he did. Take a breath, I’m not saying that at all. In fact, the only thing that I am saying, is to say that I didn’t say what he said I said, ya’ feel me?

And, oddly enough, the fact that he is saying that I said something that I didn’t say, and is spreading it around as something to defend himself to, is well, opportunistic as well. He is defending himself to something he was never accused of, to get attention. If he was accused of being a racist, it wasn’t by me, and was never printed by the Sable Verity. If a source that I printed said it, then he should have taken it to the source, not the messenger, as outlined in the first few sentences of my original post when I said:

Take a deep breath, and try really hard not to shoot the messenger.

I wrote those words on June 12th. So then, would someone kindly tell Mr. Arboleda, by way of the Huffington Post, to get his gun outta my face?

If in what I did, I was accusing Mr. Arboleda of racism, I would then offer this: the man doesn’t know the first thing about race or racism in America, at least not in terms of Black and White.

Altering a picture with a caption- is that racism? Is that art? Plagiarizing an image (check the book cover in the pic above) and changing the title of a book- is that art? Is that racism?

Sure, he’s pissed at the NYPD and the Secret Service. I read all the blogs and posts and comments from folks ticked that his rights to free speech were trampled on.

But maybe he needs to read up on the laws of this country. Using the word “assassinate” in reference to a presidential candidate or a Senator is a crime. What the hell were the cops supposed to do? Can you imagine the 911 calls that came in on that one?

Can you imagine walking down the street and doing a double take, the words assassinate and Obama in the same sentence, with nooses hanging in the background?

How cute that the concept is nothing more than a metaphore for Mr. Arboleda. For the rest of us? Yeah, not so much.

Mr. Arboleda, you need a lesson sir. You need to be schooled, as they say, and I am more than qualified for the job. My doors are open to you, 24-7.

Class is in session.

You’re late.

P.S., I take apologies in writing

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