Slavery in the 21st Century

May 17th, 2005 · 2 Comments · Los Angeles

Power_tools1
Rubén Ortiz-Torres, Power Tools [source]

Like most apartment dwellers in the LA area, we have a landlord who pays to have a crew of gardeners come by once a week and keep the lawn, roses, birds of paradise, etc. in good shape. Today, while I was working on a critical theory paper, I overheard two of the gardeners talking outside my window. This quote jumped out at me, and made me think of the gardeners in Wim Wenders’s provocative The End of Violence, and the work of Rubén Ortiz-Torres.

“Black, white, there are still a lot of problems. Slavery was over a long time ago, but if you think about it, we’re slaves too. I just try not to think about it… man, I just try not to think about it.”

Category: Los Angeles

2 Comments so far ↓

  • David

    Meg, I had no idea Wim Wenders had a web site. I mean of course he does, but I hadn’t really thought about it. Thanks for the link. Not only do I love his movies, but they always have such great soundtracks.

  • Micah

    I’ve got to check out some of that Wim Wenders. I see you’ve given just about all his movies five stars on Netflix. 😉

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