Also known as CPLY, William N. Copley was an American painter, writer, gallery owner, publisher, and more. Seriously, this guy did it all and he still had time to be politically conscious. The first time I saw this work was at the Whitney Museum’s An Incomplete History of Protest exhibition and I thought it was a really powerful piece and straightforward in its message. But like most works, there’s more to it.

When I see a black pseudo-American flag sans stars, it feels as though pride has been drained from this notion of patriotism, a love and admiration for one’s country. No more vibrant red and blue, but black and white instead. It evokes more shame than it does pride. Severe imperfect black lines and the elongated word THINK. Think about what? The state of the nation and its treatment of its civilians possibly.

Copley painted this during the late 1960’s. Four years after the murder go Medgar Evers and three years after the murder of Reverend MLK Jr. Two years after its creation, Black Panther leader Fred Hampton would be drugged by an FBI undercover agent, mercilessly shot and killed by police as he lie sleeping next to his pregnant fiancee at home. The same year, Meredith Hunter, an 18 year old African-American man, would be stabbed at an outdoor music festival by a biker while the Rolling Stones played on stage. Notice a pattern? Black. White. Think.

Copley was white. It’s almost like he was pleading for other white people with their backs turned against the country’s raging race war to pay attention. To care. To THINK.

The long black strokes resemble the shoddy iron bars of a jail cell. Similar to the ones a disproportionate number of Black Americans sit behind. For drug charges that many white people get away with, for wrongful accusations, for petty crimes and broken windows policing. If we don’t think, we’re trapped in the prison of our own mind and our country becomes a jail. We become inmates as our rights are slowly stripped away from us. We’re easily controlled if we do not think. We’re not unlike cattle, thinking they have space to roam, but really contained within an electric fence. If we do not think, we fall prey to a dystopian newspeak.

Memorial Day weekend is coming up. I don’t think there’s anything more patriotic than recognizing the flaws inherent to your country and thinking about how they can be addressed and resolved. Essentially, thinking is patriotic. As is compassion for your fellow civilians. We must make an effort to actually align our policies and systems with the Pledge of Allegiance. Liberty and justice for all.

Have we been thinking since Copley painted this work in 1967? Or have we grown complicit?