* BROWN UNIVERSITY ALUMNA OFFERS "NEGROES FOR RENT": Several years
ago the University of Wisconsin published a university promotional
brochure showing a photograph of students at a football game. The
problem was there were no black students in the crowd. That was not
an image the university wished to project in its promotional
materials. Therefore, the university enlisted the help of a computer
technician to superimpose the face of a black person over one of the
students in the crowd.
A new Web site - Rent-A-Negro.com - would have been the perfect
solution for the production team at the University of Wisconsin. The
site offers to supply the services of a Negro for those who want to
add an element of diversity to their next social function. The going
rate is listed as $350 per hour for businesses and $200 for
individuals. Extra charges may apply for rented Negroes who must deal
with white racists or with repeated requests to touch their hair.
The Web site is actually "performance art" by Portland, Oregon,
artist damali ayo, a 31-year-old black woman who prefers the use of
lower-case letters in the spelling of her name. The artist, who
attended Brown University, has received hundreds of requests for
Rent-A-Negro. Many of the people who have filled in the electronic
request form at the Web site have done so in the spirit of satire in
which the Web site was created. But ayo has also received dozens of
requests from people who seemingly are interested in renting a black
person to attend their function. (JBHE)
http://www.jbhe.com
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