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'Bushwick 200' List Scrapped After Racially Charged Debate

By Gwynne Hogan | January 7, 2016 12:58pm
 Rafael Fuchs, owner of Project Fuchs, canceled his controversial plan to make a list of the 200 most
Rafael Fuchs, owner of Project Fuchs, canceled his controversial plan to make a list of the 200 most "innovative" Bushwick residents, he said Thursday.
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BUSHWICK — A gallery owner canceled his controversial plan to make a list of the 200 most "innovative" Bushwick residents, after a racially charged debate erupted on his Facebook page about who deserved to be on it.

The event page went live on Jan. 2 and was soon bogged down with concerned comments from a handful of Bushwick residents about the politics behind the list.

"Just because some white guy concocts some app, or some white girl vandalizes homes with crochet, does not mean they transform the conventional," wrote Anthony Rosado, 24, a lifelong Bushwick resident and activist.

After initially engaging with those concerned, Rafael Fuchs, owner of Fuchs Projects behind the event, deleted all external comments to the page on Tuesday.

A day later Fuchs had renamed the event "The 200 Most," nixing the word Bushwick from the title and by Thursday morning he had decided to cancel the event entirely.

"We don’t wish to cause any trauma to anyone and any grief to the community, neither to create a platform that will ignite unnecessary violence," Fuchs wrote. "We cannot tolerate any racial and hate notions and comments from anyone."

"Fuchs projects is an art gallery, not a social organization, and we will continue our program, exhibiting innovative and challenging works in different media, especially photography," he wrote.

Rosado said at first he was relieved that event was being canceled.

"[But] it brought me back to the Bushwick Flea — he ended it in the same way," said Rosado, referring to the incident where the flea market slung up the crochet mural on a neighbor's house without asking permission. "'It's going to be taken down but I don't see why it's an issue'...Oh, you still don't see the point."

"He may think it's done. I don't think it's done," Rosado said. "The conversation needs to continue."