Untitled "I got in 1 little graffiti arrest & my mom got scared...but my dad lost it when me & the homey didn't take community service seriously"

One Book One Northwestern, 2020–21

This artwork was selected in response to themes in Northwestern’s community-wide reading of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014) by Bryan Stevenson.

In Pat Phillips’s mixed-media drawing, graffiti and a spray paint can are shown next to a fist holding the handle of a broken gavel. The artwork calls attention to the experience of Black youth who have been punished excessively in response to a minor transgression—one that is not a serious crime and has no victims—such as defacing property. Through the partially visible graffiti, "….sh Prince," and the title that plays on its theme song, Phillips also recalls the popular 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which explored the experience of a Black teenager from Philadelphia who is sent to live with his wealthy, out-of-touch relatives in Bel Air after getting in "one little fight."

Phillips’s drawing and title speak to the artist’s lived experience and his father’s position as a corrections officer. According to the artist, "my work creates a mythological narrative that explores a black perspective from my many years growing up in suburbia painting graffiti." In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson has included stories about incarcerated youth. The Equal Justice Initiative has worked to free people who had been convicted as juveniles and were incarcerated, for example, in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for more than fifty years. While the infraction in Phillips’s drawing is not serious, the title serves to remind the viewer of the extreme punishment and intimidation a young Black defendant may face for crimes in contrast to a white defendant.