Voices from the Street

Recently, scouts from THE STATE have discovered the voice of the urban underclass in Union City. The scrawl on the walls of an old abandoned building give voice to the discontent minority’s displeasure of Mayor Stack’s regime.

From “Graffiti Wars” by Dr. Sherri Cavan of San Fransisco State University
The beliefs and practices associated with the “aerosol nation” of youthful graffiti writers have taken form and substance from their conflict with the authorities and the conflict with one another. What was historically an ad hoc activity, motivated by impulse, became organized, with rules governing the behavior and a value system establishing the basis for judgment and reward, differentiated internally into high status muralists and low status taggers, as well as outlaws who disrespect their peers as well as disrespecting the establishment.

In the rhetoric of the ruling class, graffiti symbolizes anarchy, its very presence an unquestioned threat to social order. Graffiti destroys the beauty of the environment and challenges the resolve of the authorities to maintain their aesthetic vision of what public space should look like.
Graffiti Wars

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