May 10, 2005

KRCA's anti-American billboard: still up in Koreatown

I was driving through Koreatown (Los Angeles) earlier today and out of the corner of my eye I saw something quite familiar: one of KRCA's anti-American billboards. After driving around the block I stared at it for a minute, and I have trouble believing how anyone could not see it as an overtly agressive, anti-American symbol.

Supposedly, Liberman Broadcasting agreed to revise the billboards, and they were supposed to do that by the 6th ("Public outrage kills 'L.A., Mexico' sign"). However, as far as I could tell, this was the same billboard I've seen in pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me.

This might just be a minor delay, so if you know a liberal apologist who's nearby, take them for a drive and show it to them as soon as possible. It's on the north side of 8th Street near Catalina (between Vermont and Normandie). Note also that despite the name "Koreatown", most of the residents of the area are Hispanic. In fact, I believe a majority are from Central America and not Mexico.

One other subtextual item regarding this billboard is its relation to graffiti. When I first saw a picture of the billboard, I thought it might be graffiti, but then I looked at the lettering and read reports saying that that was the intended design. Something that I haven't read elsewhere is the fact that crossing out one gang's graffiti is considered a hostile act:

Graffiti is also used to cross-out graffiti written by other gangs, in their own and other gang's territories, which is considered both an insult and a challenge. In fact, the crossing-out of rival gang graffiti often leads to retaliation.

Since that's the first thing I thought of, I have an extraordinary deal of trouble believing that the advertising agency didn't mean it in that fashion in addition to their other subtextual messages. And, since the residents of Koreatown are quite familiar with gangs, I believe around 99% of them would get that same message. If you find useful idiot liberals downplaying the billboard, or even considering it funny ("L.A. Times Editors Say the 'Los Angeles, Mexico' Billboard is Funny"), please consider that symbols are quite powerful and the billboard is a quite a noxious symbol.

Posted to Immigration2005a at May 10, 2005 06:03 PM

Comments

Well, seeing as how 'The business of America is business', this billboard cannot fairly be called "anti-American".

Can it?

Posted by: eh at May 11, 2005 12:11 AM