In Defense Of Graffiti, By Alex Boyd

When we hear the world “Graffiti,” we probably think of negative things about it; but why? From my perspective I would have to say most of the graffiti an average person will see is vandalism to someone’s property, bad images that aren’t appropriate, bad slogans, and gang related icons. But as Alex Boyd’s says, “In Defense of graffiti,” “There are two types of graffiti: one rambling, obscure, and sometimes offensive, the other more tangible, more political and accessible.”(88) While this is true that there are some political and extraordinary created graffiti, more known as street art, which expresses one’s own idea or political view without being offensive or obscure to look at. Even though graffiti can be a good thing, why does the typical person think it’s a bad thing? If we think hard about this, why does one

create graffiti?

What is the whole purpose of it? How come someone does graffiti if it’s illegal and you can be fined or go to jail if caught. What we really have to look at is who is mostly creating graffiti and why are they creating graffiti? Is there more to it than what we can see?

Alex Boyd’s says, “In walking the streets of Toronto, I find its simple enough to collect examples of fairly useless or even damaging graffiti: racist remarks, empty slogans, and illegible signatures.”(89) When I go to Miami there is this thing their called the Wynwood Walls where you are around aloud to graffiti on the walls and express your own ideas and create your own art without getting in trouble for doing it. But also when I go to Miami or Pompano all I can see of graffiti is damaging icons, immoral phrases, and gang related signs. But that is how I see it. However, the people of Miami or Pompano may see it as something different; they may see it as a code, a

message or a symbolic image. All I see of it is destruction of somebody property that got vandalized and now they have to pay someone to get rid of it. I was raised up in a household that if someone damaged someone else’s property or if something was illegal it shouldn’t be done and they should have to pay the price. Now that brings me into my next question, if graffiti is illegal, then why would people still do it and risk going to jail and having to pay money? I wholeheartedly think people create graffiti because they want to get their message across on what is happening maybe in their home, there city, or there state; and the media doesn’t want to broadcast it so they create an image so people can see it. For an example, on what is going on in Ferguson; they created a symbolic images and slogan saying “Black Live’s Matter,” and they created a 3D figure of black hands with their hands up in the air. This to me is art, because there isn’t any damage being done, and a messaging is being brought across by saying that even though we are a different color we are all still the same and we all matter.

It’s not that I am against graffiti; I actually enjoy looking at graffiti. It’s fun to look at and try to decode the message that the person who made it is trying to get across to everyone, or maybe just a certain amount of people that live in that area may only know what it means. I strongly believe that there are different kinds of graffiti: political, educational, and damaging graffiti. I don’t call it graffiti if it’s political or educational-I call it street art. Because there is a purpose and meaningful reason in street art, in graffiti it means nothing to me. I’m not a supporter of graffiti, nor do I hate graffiti, but if it was done to something I own I probably wouldn’t like it at all and I would want someone to pay for it to get removed. Alex Boyd’s says, “Some simply assume that everyone hates graffiti, and websites advertise cleaning services to fight those vandals and their weapons of destruction.”(88) I can agree with this opinion, because not everyone sees the amazing things that graffiti can become, also known as street art. All they see is the things while they are driving through the streets of any city and it’s mostly gang slogans or curse words; graffiti isn’t only on walls I seen it in my school bathrooms or even public bathrooms. Who wants to look at curse words or gang phrases while they are using the restroom?
Who is mostly creating graffiti? Alex Boyd’s says, “I suspect most graffiti is done by young people, whether they call themselves artists or not.”(89) I concur with his opinion that most of the graffiti we see is created by young individuals, but how come the younger society is creating graffiti and not so much of adults. This could be because they really don’t have a voice yet; they are too young to be listen to by any news reporter, also spray paint is really cheap and affordable for mostly anybody which is a big reason on why young adults spray paint graffiti. We really have to ask ourselves this; do the parents of the individual have a big impact on the child while it’s growing up to lead them into the right direction and tell them that spray painting on walls is a bad things. Obviously this is true and the parents do play a big impact on the child while it is growing up, but how come the parents don’t tell the child how to behave and what is right from wrong; I’ll have to say the child probably didn’t grow up in the best environment, there were adults probably doing drugs all around him and they all probably though it was okay to spray paint other peoples property. While this can be mostly true, I do have friends that grow up in the same environment as me, with really good parents and a good education and they knew that spray painting on the walls was illegal but they still did it anyway; I’ve asked my friend why does he spray paint stop signs and walls sometimes, he told me because he thought it was fun and I like the feel of not being caught while doing something illegal. As you can see it’s not only in bad environments it can be anywhere, but for the majority I think the parents play a big role on the child from when they are born to teach them what should and shouldn’t be done.

As most people say, graffiti is bad, it shouldn’t exist, and they shouldn’t be doing those things to other people’s property. But think about this for instants, what happens if the world had NO graffiti at all? No walls were paints, no bathroom walls were paints, and nothing had graffiti or street art on them. How would the world look now? I think it would be pretty boring and dull, even though I can care less for graffiti, it is still interesting to look at and colorful and think about why the person spray painted that wall. What we have to change is the word graffiti because an average person thinks of graffiti as vandalism to someone’s property, bad images that aren’t appropriate for kids to look at, and bad slogans. If we want graffiti to stay and develop into a worldwide phenomenon people have to stop spraying bad things and start writing a message in them; for example “Black Lives matter,” that is an excellent message to be brought across because it tells us a message that even though we are different we still matter just the same as you.