I can definitely see how it's very similar to someone claiming Confederate statues are just historical pieces and ignoring the message. If Fast is trying to portray the "old" Chinatown as a bygone era that will be missed, then that is surely a perception held only by those who visited Chinatown in the past (not those who lived in the muck and confronted the label of 'other'). Yeah, I can see the appropriation. What I find alarming is that Fast likened protestors to the white nationalists in Charlottesville.

The installation is way more interesting if people are there reacting to it.

Which gives me an idea. We should surround Confederate General statues with art that depicts popular outrage. Rather than just taking them down, how about statues of people looking shocked? Or maybe imagines of people who suffered under slavery. Or other protest pieces. I think that would be a lot more educational than simply hiding our shameful past.

I would love to see the old monument celebrating the great Union "victory" at Sand Creek installed somewhere with a half dozen works of art around it portraying the Native American genocide.

it made me think of the work of Julius Fast (no relation to Omer).

Just a bit tired of Everything being attacked for insensitivity - a glance at stills from his film gives the indication it is not modern day period.

I remember an early Brian DePalma film satirizing white theatergoers during the racially tense late 60s - where white liberals paid through the nose to be physically attacked during the performance and then, when charged money at the end relaxed despite what they had endured. That was Satire - which people in the US could then discern as the difference between art and reflex sensitivity worship.

Is it good to be sensitive? - yes. Is it a Commandment to be hyper-sensitive? I think not.

So would a film about refugees on a ship bound to America in the early 1900s (say carrying a young Charlie Chaplin) be rightly attacked by UK descendants as "English Poverty Porn?"

Or photos/films of Julius Fast from the lower east side of NYC in the same period be banned as "Jewish Poverty Porn"?

I'd say Jews have a pretty good claim against (6M of them) to be sensitive to and I doubt the majority would advocate banning Julius Fast's photos. But I get the sense these protesters would (if they were Chinatown photos instead of NYC ghetto photos).

But then maybe Trump and Bannon are winning the culture war, after all.