Artist Mary Engelbreit Uses Her Work to Commemorate Michael Brown; Some Fans Not Into Anti-Racist Art, Apparently

Illustrator Mary Engelbreit has a long history of creating heartwarming, joyful artwork in children’s books, on stationery, and on home goods. Recently, to commemorate the death of Michael Brown at the hands of Ferguson, MO police, she decided to use her art to show support for the black community specifically and people of color in general.

Engelbreit took to her Facebook page to commemorate the 1-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death by creating this piece and offering this statement:

But, you know, God forbid an artist known for creating heartwarming, child-centric work dare acknowledge the fact that sometimes there are things that aren’t so sunny in the world and those not-sunny things affect the very children you’re trying to cheer with their work. Of course, criticism reared its ugly head:

However, Engelbreit did receive lots of support for her piece as well. And she responded to the critics with the following:

PREACH.

Now, some people took the opportunity to point out to her that her work generally isn’t known for its diversity, and that she might want to, you know, fix that:

As you can see from Engelbreit’s response—”Lots more where this came from!”—she appears to be on it.

And I would say that, my friends, is an example of a good ally. Using your position of privilege to amplify the struggles of others, and if someone tells you how you can do better, you try to do it. Simple. I wish more people could find it in themselves to do that.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna scour Engelbreit’s website for some new art prints featuring cute Latin@ kids.

(via Buzzfeed)

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Teresa Jusino

Teresa Jusino (she/her) is a native New Yorker and a proud Puerto Rican, Jewish, bisexual woman with ADHD. She's been writing professionally since 2010 and was a former TMS assistant editor from 2015-18. Now, she's back as a contributing writer. When not writing about pop culture, she's writing screenplays and is the creator of your future favorite genre show. Teresa lives in L.A. with her brilliant wife. Her other great loves include: Star Trek, The Last of Us, anything by Brian K. Vaughan, and her Level 5 android Paladin named Lal.

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