Existing comment:
Faith Ringgold
born New York City 1930
Flag for the Moon: Die Nigger, from the series Black Light
1969
oil on canvas
Glenstone Museum, Potomac, MD
Ringgold, an advocate for racial justice and women's rights, created Flag for the Moon: Die Nigger in the year of the first moon landing. In it, she addresses U.S. government hypocrisy -- massively investing in space exploration and war while ignoring its most vulnerable citizens. Ringgold's blunt title, camouflaged in the flag design, questions the sacrifices African American soldiers were making in Vietnam on behalf of a country still rife with racism. She included this painting in The People's Flag Show in 1970, a group exhibition protesting censorship that resulted in her arrest, as one of its organizers, for flag desecration. |