Comments

1
Those white people and their strange ways...
2
Way to steal my topic for "Writing the New Seattle" class next week. :)
3
Every time I walk by the gum wall it's nothing but Japanese tourists.
4
wrong, spiffy. it's every tourist. it's revolting, and it's metasticized to both sides of the alley.

good riddance, but the market assoc. is going to let it start over again.
5
The notion that the issue here is race is fucking absurd. Presenting it as such does nothing but give ammunition to the asshats who want to color all claims of racism as hysterical.
6
I'm thinking of starting a pee wall there.
7
I've actually always loved it. Its weird and colorful, and it doesn't hurt anything.
8
The first time I'd ever heard of a gum wall, it was from a friend who'd just returned from a vacation in Mexico...
10
@7: wrong. the sugar is deteriorating the mortar and bricks. that's why they're doing it. it's hurting the buildings.
11
Every issue is about race. It permeates everything and this is an interesting example of the opposite dialectic -- who does not get punished and why. Things are cute because they are white.
13
Good Afternoon Charles,
You have a good point that the wall is disgusting. I recently had my relatives over for a visit. When at PPM, I didn't take them to the gum wall. However, I part with your assertion that it is a 'wall of white privilege'. It is a silly and perhaps unhealthy (for the building at least) Seattle institution. But, I don't think it has anything to do with race.
14
I don't know how you guys keep this sad excuse for a writer on the payroll. Holden gone, Madrid gone, Goldy gone (etc., etc., etc.), and Mudede is still there. So sad.
15
Having witnessed 3/4s of the, uhm, "growth"... I used to think it was off-beat and amusing, now I think it's just gross. Good riddance.
16
@11 - Thanks for making this clear. I don't agree every issue is about race but I really do try to see beyond the trolling Charles clearly enjoys. It's certainly not that somebody thinks the gum wall is cute or even likes it. It's a tourist attraction at the market. It's colorful. It's disgusting. But Charles looks at the wall and thinks, "Non-whites would get in trouble if they were caught starting a gum wall". That might be true.
17
Mudede's point is valid. If blacks were the only ones putting gum on the wall, white Seattle would not stand for it and there would be no gum on the wall. It's a cold fact that it was tolerated all this time, past the point of wider-spread revulsion. Only now bcz the sugar is allegedly deteriorating the mortar (and prolly bcz it's just finally exceeded most people's 'gross' factor) is it being removed.

@5 - I think you're too late. ;>)

@12 - Being shot to death is a privilege? You live in a strange world, sir.
18
BTW, is there a hidden camera that proves the racial makeup of gum stickers? I've never done it and don't know anyone white who has. It's gross for sure.
20
@12

May you be so honored this year.
21
i blame hitler. no...wait...it's WORSE than hitler. WORSE.
22
@10,
I'm not sure that's true. Someone said that, but... that someone wasn't an engineer. It could be true, but I sorta doubt that gum could cause more than cosmetic damage to brickwork.

And if the bricks are covered in gum, cosmetic damage isn't an issue.
23
Chicletbait
24
@7 try telling that to all the [what color now?] kids harassed by police over graffiti.
26
What a load of crap.
27
Can you imagine a world where whites checked their privilege to the point that they not only allowed minorites to shit in Pike Place's alleys and sell/smoke crack in Victor Steinbrueck Park like it's a fucking spectator sport, but ALSO to stick gum to the gum wall? Sadly, we ain't there yet. Not by damn sight. No gum / no justice!

#TriggeredByJuicyFruit

29
Thanks for letting me know I was disrupting white privilege when my friends and I who are all non-white stuck gum on the wall...
31
Charles is outraged by the gum wall, not by the crime rot in Belltown and Pioneer Square. See, to him all the crime is justified "because Marx" and white people are evil even though we still support poor non-white places in multiple ways.

His view is "everyone/everything is racist, so pay us now!"

Funniest part is, non-whites get away with burning entire neighborhoods after a questionable verdict, and their kids can behave like wannabe rap gangsters because "it's culture" according to NPR listeners.

The Stranger is like reading a dumb high school paper. It's all "f**k you dad!", then "pay for all my mistakes, dad!". Laughable.
32
Did that "mad at dad" nutjob get banned?
33
@32
I heard he was beheaded by an angry group of public school gym coaches.
34
Race? Really you're going take it there? I think that's cheap for a fun wall that's become a tourist staple attraction for the city. I've witnessed loads tourists and locals alike from around the world ranging from all colors take their sticky icky gum and proudly put their mark on the wall. I must say, your view is absolutely astonishing to me. Once upon a time I worked at the market and can say for certain it's not just a "white" privilege thing to do. This is total crap.
35
One of Mr. Mudede's finer trolling efforts. Good job.
36
Well, that explains it. I'm so happy to see this nastiness go.

It's an example of people claiming to like a thing because they're supposed to, because everybody else likes it, and god forbid you should step out of line. Group think is king in Sea-town.
37
@33

I figured he'd just signed up under some other stupid daddy-issue type of monicker and continue flaunting his ignorance.
38
@36
Says the dog lover. Talk about an entitled local group of poop tossers.
39
Re race, those of you arguing that it's about it are doing so from a first principle a priori, you know, the way thumpers argue against homosexuality or Pol Pot argued against glasses. You can always speculate a priori, but don't confuse the fact that you closed a loop with evidence that you said something actually true.

Also I hate that I'm in agreement with some of the resident dicks on this one, need to scrub my phone with bleach.
40
Mr. Mudede's tongue is firmly stuck in his cheek. Lighten up, people; learn to detect humor when it's in front of you.
41
@38: You're a tosser.
42
What an idiot.
43
I just want to go on record as a white male, that I never stuck gum to the gum wall and my reaction to it was always "eww gross". However I did stick a picture of a bird on it which made everything better.
44
This has to be either satire or a desperate attempt to get clicks...
45
worst article on the stranger i've read. really? you're gonna turn gum into a race issue? please, get the fuck out.
46
I know that this is a just a cynical ploy for those sweet, sweet page clicks, but Charles the whole OMG RACIST journalistic gravy train is starting to lose traction. You're going to need to find another schtick pretty soon.
47
I have always seen The Stranger as the rag of white privilege. If white people felt strongly negative about it, and the publication was popular with, say, black people or Arab Americans, then believe me, there would be no fucking Stranger in Seattle.
48
How about a Cum Wall?
49
Go kill a horse.
50
Charles always poking the bear. You go, Charles
51
Charles Mudede forever.
52
"the gum wall is about white people." There's a profound Mudede thesis if I've ever seen one. Does the Stranger actually pay you for this dribble?

That's the idiotic f***ing Mudede I've come to know and loathe... You've actually written some things recently that were coherent and made some kind of awkward sense. I actually kind of preferred it when I could see your name on the page/screen and know it would be an utter waste of my time to read it.
53
He's probably half kidding and half serious. That wall is a hit in Seattle. Seattle is a very white town. Ergo, that wall is a white thing. Whatever it is, it's stoopid and nasty, and it's going away, so yay!

And yeah, I like dogs. Love 'em. Wolves, too. Hate pit bulls, though. So? ;)
54
This makes me think of Hannah Wilke. http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/colle…
55
Can it b some kinda like absurd hysterical artistic expression. It is pretty Knar tho...
56
Totally absurd and hysterical. Kinda Knar too. But I gotta say that I work with this shit and those are old timey clay bricks that don't even flinch at sugar n don't even get me started on the mortar for crying out softly. I'm gonna start my own gum wall on Anthropology or something...
57
@53: Mudede loves doing the whole "I'll say something and if it gets a bad reaction, I'll play it off as a joke" thing. It is a good way to not have to take responsibility or ownership of anything you say, but it is partially why no one takes anything he says seriously.
58
What a poorly written ridiculous piece of garbage. Congratulations on shock factor and all the clicks. " The whites" really? Please as a favor to most people in Seattle......
Don't talk about a part of Seattle like that. It's a part of Seattle that so many people love.
59
I prefer the old cum wall that used to be around the corner at the Lusty Lady.

It was much tastier.
61
Is Charles serious, or did I fall for his clickbait? I'm not sure which one amuses me more.
62
This is a ridiculous racist wad of chewed up writing get.
63
@6 a pee wall? Try the alleyways in belltown. "I love the smell of dumpster whizz in the morning."
64
..........

I....I can't even....

Yes I can.

DO YOU NOT REALIZE HOW COMPLETELY BAT#*%@! CRAZY YOU SOUND WITH THIS NONSENSE?!? Oh my #@%*&@?$ god you overly PC, thin-skinned social justice idiots get more absurd and unbelievably cartoonish by the day. A wall of "white privilege"? Where do you PC-bro dregs even come up with this nonsense? It's almost as if there's some super secret 4chan like forum out there somewhere that all of you have found and just post about how you're going to one-up one another on the absurdity track every day. You've GOT to be trolling us with this crap.

Oh wait, you're pro-Sawant and like writing billion dollar cheques with absolutely no accounting of where the money would go - of course you aren't trolling us - you actually believe the absolutely insane things that go on in your head.

Somebody please investigate this and do a piece on what sort of chemical weapon test was conducted on Americans back when you PC-bro scourge came out of the woodwork - there had to have been some sort of agent that altered your brains in some way to make you this certifiably nuts.
66
Masterful troll, Mudede. I applaud you.

67
@64....

Mow your damn lawn and sit the hell down.
68
Oh FFS. As a non-white photographer who has joyfully taken colorful photos of folks from every skin color on the spectrum standing in front of this wall with their touristing family or locals hanging out with their friends, this piece of garbage writing is a waste of space. Stop already.

No. Not EVERYTHING is about race. Some things are about culture and city traditions and harmless fun. A wall covered in a very human habit-- chewed up gum-- is nothing more than that.

I suspect this article was written by a white person who deems themself a progressive liberal.
69
Charles wrote this? I thought it was a guest editorial written by another Seattle landmark...the Fremont Troll. Badumpish! Thank you, I'll be here all week.
70
@14
That’s because no one else wants him and you can’t just go and fire your token Angry Black Marxist.
71
@68
“As a non-white photographer who has joyfully taken colorful photos of folks from every skin color on the spectrum standing in front of this wall with their touristing family…”

Impossible!!!

Firstly: You cannot possibly know joy as a non-white in this racist country.

Secondly: Only whites can be tourists, all other races are refugees. Tourism is another shameful example of white privilege that should be stomped out.
72
I've lived right around the corner from this wall. Just like the colors of the chewing gum on the wall, every type of person adds to it. Personally i'm sad to see it go, because in a way it is a symbol of how all the different types of "chewing gums can coexist". I'm sure the author of this article isn't a bigot in anyway but i do imagine 'tic-tacs' rattling in his pocket as he wrote this angry click bait.
74
I hope they add a "Stick Gum Here If You Have A Low IQ" sign to the new wall.
75
In his efforts to remediate "systemic racism" and "white privilege" -- Mudede should be mindful of the parable: "The Boy Who Cried Gum."

#blacklivesblather
76
Charles's complaint amounts to the statement "racism exists". Hypothetically, if things were different, we might be able to perceive a racist dimension to the gym wall, and to absolutely every other thing that exists, because racism exists.
But there is a difference between agreeing that racism exists, and being so gullible as to imagine it is the determining factor in everything that exists. You should really be ashamed of the thinking that went into that blog post, Charles.
77
Yeah...gum on a wall. Totally about race.

Because that's totally not a completely hysterical conclusion to drive at...regarding gum...on...a wall.

...Yeah.
78
Charles's post is now a gum wall.
80
I like the gum wall, but Charles is right: white privilege is all over this.
81
Is Charles suggesting that only white people went to Theatresports?
82
this is flatout a piss poor article. the author is attempting to race bait when the gum wall has absolutely nothing to do with race or ethnicity. it's just people putting gum up on a wall. period.
83
Cute?

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
84
So like a typical internet user I clicked on the article because I already disagreed with it or I already agreed. I agree or wanted to agree and use the arguments as my own in my next discussion about this. Especially because I hate the gum wall so I as a white person get to be the haughty white person who excuses themselves (unfairly from the insult) but there was no actual argument made for your click-bait headline. If you were writing this article to get a few finger snaps from your social justice friends you succeeded but white privilege has an equal and not so opposite effect and that is oppression. Maybe drawing comparisons and doing a little more analysis than just screaming white privilege would have done this topic a little more justice.
85
Brick Walls Matter!

Down with gum! It's a white thing!

BWM, BWM, BWM, BWM, BWM, BWM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
86
Charles - you're a douche journalist. But I'm sure you got some hurrahs from your liberal elite douchey friends.
87
You are a race-baiting asshat and you represent everything that is wrong with this country. This kind of garbage is not helping race equality, but rather ensuring that that there will never be such a thing. You are intentionally inciting more hate and bigotry and I know that YOU would be the first, loudest, and most persistent person to cry racism if a white journalist had written this article about black privilege. It's sad that pushing out this type of race-baiting crap is the only way you can make a name for yourself, rather than through true journalism.

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