Usually, I think that graffiti, even graffiti that looks as if it was done in a hurry, is interesting. I was in Pittsburgh about one month ago and remember having a friend point out a dumpster on which someone had spray painted, "have a nice day." There wasn't anything pretty about the script or too impressive about the technique — just some words quickly spray-painted onto a dumpster behind a string of small shops and cafes. This graffiti was positive and my favorite part about it was its placing. It felt just odd enough to have such encouraging words on a dumpster, next to everyone's garbage as if to send a message that says, "Yep, there's a lot of garbage all over, but, like, have a nice day, though!"

A lot of the time while taking walks in more populated areas, I keep an eye out for little bits of graffiti. Near Pittsburgh's North Shore, I saw this graffiti:

It reads:

SAFETY <—> FREEDOM
WE MUST CHOOSE

And in my hometown, I saw this piece of graffiti that reads "I was the only guy left with a little anarchy..." (Even though, yes, it looks like it says "lime anarchy," and not "little anarchy," and that's funny and all, but you get the point.)

This little anarchist smiley face man and those very, very serious words on a Pittsburgh bridge are pretty cool, even though they're both a bit dramatic for my taste.I've always found graffiti to be fascinating and graffiti artists to be mysterious. You never see graffiti artists in the act because defacing property is, y'know, illegal, but I still wonder about who is decorating the buildings I like to look at so much. Sometimes the work I'll find is ugly and the paint is dripping so much I can hardly make out what the words or image are supposed to be. Other times, though, I'll see something very beautiful or cleverly placed that truly displays creativity and artistic ability.

And then there are pieces of graffiti that are ugly not only because of poor execution or lack of artistic ability, but because of this paired with ignorance and hatred. Finding these types of graffiti seems almost like a given, but it is frustrating every time I come across such pieces. Recently, I was on a road trip with my family when we stopped at a gas station in rural Delaware. In the bathroom, I noticed that the toilet paper had words scratched onto it. "White Power" is what it said in shaky, thin lettering. White power over what? The infrequently cleaned gas station bathroom Delaware?

If that kind of graffiti should be anywhere, that was almost the perfect spot: in a dirty bathroom, right next to the toilet. But then again, that kind of graffiti really shouldn't be anywhere.

It's really upsetting to see an art form (albeit an illegal one...whatever) used to spread hatred and increase the ever-present racial divide. It makes me wonder about who wrote that, what they wanted to do, and who they wanted to see what they had written. And, of course, in this case I am using the term "art" very, very loosely, but am still using the word "art" for clarity's sake because art has a different meaning to everyone/is objective/blah blah blah.

Art is oftentimes used as an outlet. I know this from personal experience. It is an outlet for emotion that's hard to express otherwise or emotion that is hard to pinpoint at all. It is absolutely a way to work through anger, but creating hateful things in anger, for example writing "white power," is a dangerous thing because art is seen and art is shared. Art is a weapon. Think before you create. Don't use graffiti to advance your own racist agenda.