Huge Black Lives Matter sign painted in front of Trump Tower: a mayor's idea

A huge Black Lives Matter sign was painted on the asphalt in front of New York’s Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. Right below Donald Trump’s office. And it is, moreover, an official initiative, because the idea is from the New York City administration: indeed, even the city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, lent a hand to the twenty local street artists hired for the realization and volunteers, showing up with a roller to give it a paint job along with everyone else.

Of course, Trump went on a rampage, chastising De Blasio for what the president believes is a waste of money: “New York City has cut $1 billion from the police force,” Trump tweeted, “and the mayor is about to paint a big expensive yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxurious avenue.” The president then called on the police to “not let this symbol of hate be fixed on New York’s greatest street.”

De Blasio’s response was not long in coming: “President Trump,” he said in his inauguration speech, “said we are denigrating the luxury of Fifth Avenue. Let me tell you: we are not denigrating anybody. We are liberating Fifth Avenue. We are elevating Fifth Avenue. And when we say black lives matter, there is no more American statement, no more patriotic statement, because there is no America without black America.” De Blasio then directly responded to Trump via Twitter, “what you don’t understand is that black people built Fifth Avenue and much of this nation. Your luxury comes from their work, for which they have never been adequately compensated. We are honoring them. The fact that you see this as denigrating your street is the definition of racism.”

De Blasio’s idea is not original, since in several other American cities long Black Lives Matter signs have appeared on the streets: the most famous is probably that of Washington, where already in June a colossal one was made, with letters ten meters long each. However, there are also those within the Black Lives Matter movement itself who turn their noses up at this way of conducting the struggle: in relation to the Washington sign, the local branch of the movement had branded the work as a mere “performative gesture,” declaring that it only served the mayor to please white liberals while ignoring black demands (in this specific case, the demand was that of Defund the police, one of the BLM’s workhorses: to cut funds to the police in order to reinvest them in social development).

In any case, De Blasio’s action does not stop: in fact, the mayor is plastering the city with similar (though less conspicuous) signs.

Huge Black Lives Matter sign painted in front of Trump Tower: a mayor's idea

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