The Artist vs. the Propagandist

Kitanya Harrison
6 min readOct 14, 2019
Screengrab from a video created by Rafael Shimunov

I believe in the power of art. I believe in the power of art in this moment. I believe in its power to ask the right questions and challenge us to defend our answers. Ellen DeGeneres was photographed in a luxury suite at a Dallas Cowboys home game laughing with George W. Bush. The image made the rounds on social media, where DeGeneres was taken to task. Iraq. That’s what had most commenters up in arms — the way the war and its monstrous consequences (which are still metastasizing) have been swept out of the media, and its architects are welcomed with open arms and smiling faces. People felt insulted by the image.

DeGeneres addressed the situation on her show and made matters much worse for herself. She began by explaining that she’s good friends with the owner of the Cowboys. Maybe that’s true, but “Trust me; I’m part of the club” wasn’t the right move, in my opinion. DeGeneres literally applauded herself as she explained that she’s friends with George W. Bush as well as other people who have different opinions than hers and that we should be kind to everyone. I’ve written before about weaponized civility and how it’s used to protect the powerful. The “kindness” DeGeneres was admonishing seemed to have more to do with class solidarity than anything else. She’d made it into the skybox with the team owner and a former President, and no one was going to make her feel bad about it…

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Kitanya Harrison

*squinting in Nanny of the Maroons* | Read my essay collection, DISPOSABLE PEOPLE, DISPOSABLE PLANET: books2read.com/u/mBOYNv | Rep: Deirdre Mullane