Post by Blaque on Feb 20, 2007 9:06:58 GMT -5
TUPELO - Lee County NAACP leaders say T-shirts designed by musician Paul Thorn to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims are an insult to African-Americans and women.
"It is very offensive to the black community. It is black women being choked by a Caucasian man,'' the Rev. Paul Freeman, the Lee County NAACP president, told a news conference Wednesday.
As he spoke, he held up the shirt that depicts women named Katrina and Rita, with dark-red skin, devil horns and red-orange hair, being choked by a white man.
A half-dozen NAACP members convened the news conference across the street from the Lyric Theatre downtown where Thorn, a native of Nettleton, is to perform at a benefit concert tonight. The T-shirts will be sold at the show.
"I do care" about the NAACP's concerns, Thorn said when reached by phone in Chattanooga before he performed Wednesday night. "This T-shirt is going 100 percent to benefit hurricane victims. This was all done in the spirit of love.''
Thorn, who is from Nettleton, said he wants to respond more fully to the criticism later.
Recently, Thorn, who has an exhibit of his art at the GumTree Museum of Art, said he drew the caricature of himself with "two devil women named Katrina and Rita that I'm holding by the neck.''
A meeting Monday night arranged by Thorn and involving NAACP members was unable to settle the controversy.
Thorn's intent "was not malicious,'' said Debbie Brangenberg, director of the Downtown Tupelo Main Street Association. The show will raise money for the association, the Tupelo Community Theatre and the GumTree Museum of Art.
Some around Tupelo didn't see anything wrong with the T-shirt. "It is typical Paul Thorn. I don't have a problem with it at all,'' said Christy Hall, a paralegal who is white. "It is off-beat, like a satire. It's his own way of looking at things.''
Thorn is simply raising money for a good cause, Hall said.
Others, who are black, condemned the design. "I wouldn't pay 50 cents for the T-shirt,'' said Mae Stovall, 61, a Belden homemaker. "I don't like the look of it at all. It is a little rude.''