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The Simpsons turn black for artist's hard-hitting response to Walter Scott police shooting

Black Lives Matter protests began afresh after the death of Michael Brown

Jess Denham
Sunday 12 April 2015 12:56 BST
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Artist-activist aleXsandro Palombo reacts to the fatal shooting of Walter Scott
Artist-activist aleXsandro Palombo reacts to the fatal shooting of Walter Scott (aleXsandro Palombo )

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Italian satirical artist aleXsandro Palombo has shared a series of hard-hitting artworks in response to the fatal shooting of black man Walter Scott by a white police officer in South Carolina.

Palombo's cartoons include a black Bart being held at gunpoint by the TV series' police chief Clarence “Clancy” Wiggum, as a sign reading “I have a dream” is seen in the background, covered by a red “censored” stamp. This clear message suggests civil rights activist Martin Luther King's hopes for future generations have gone unfulfilled.

Other shocking pictures show Clancy and the Statue of Liberty wearing white Klu Klux Klan conical hats while in another, Bart lies face-down dead on the floor besides a toy gun in front of a billboard reading “Cops never sleep”, mirroring the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

Black Springfield residents are seen holding up “I can't breathe” signs in reference to the tragic last words of Eric Garner after he was put in a chokehold by a police officer last year, while others reflect the Black Lives Matter protests to end police brutality that erupted after teenager Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson.

“With this art series I wanted to denounce the current social situation, the unbelievable racial facts of recent times,” Palombo told MailOnline. “The images from the suffocation of Eric Garner are horrible, uncivilized. This is a crazy and an unacceptable violence.

“We are experiencing a dangerous social regression and if America does not react to the rampant racism it will no longer be the country of freedom and dreams, but the country of oppression and injustice.”

Palombo posted his artworks on Facebook, with a caption reading “We are one, we are all human ‪#‎StopRacism”.

He has recreated The Simpsons for a cause before, when he drew our favourite yellow family as Holocaust victims to mark the 70th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation in February and depicted Marge as a domestic violence victim last November. His graphic pictures of iconic female animated characters with bruised and bloodied faces quickly went viral.

Following the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris earlier this year, Palombo shared political cartoons supporting freedom of speech, including one showing a terrorist carrying a “Je suis idiot” flag as doves holding pencils fly behind him.

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