Tackling Hate Symbols through Art

How do you turn a racist symbol like the swastika into something palatable? A group of graffiti artists in Germany is doing just that through the #PaintBack initiative, whereby hate symbols are reimagined as colorful works of art. According to one artist, the initiative is important because "[w]hen tourists come to Berlin and look at a wall and see a swastika, they’ll think, 'What’s going on here? There are Nazis everywhere. And we don’t want that. An artistic symbol obviously looks much nicer than an ugly message, and then people walk through the city with a smile on their faces." You can see some examples of these transformations on their YouTube page where you can watch how swastikas are turned into Rubik's cubes, rabbits, and more.

The full video is available on the VOA website.

Photo by Tama66 I CC0

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