With this image, Eddie meant to represent self-censorship and the erosion of freedom in a post 9/11 America. Based on people’s common assumption that the piece is about racism, he now sees a secondary layer in it.

“In my mind, the figure was simply an individual, an American. Yet because she is African-American, to many people, the ‘individual’ becomes a representation of an entire race of people. Isn’t that exactly what racism is?” / Eddie Colla