LONDON, June 6 (Reuters) - Reclusive British street artist
Banksy published a new artwork online on Saturday which depicts
the United States flag being set alight by a candle that forms
part of a memorial to an anonymous, black, silhouetted figure.
The artwork appeared as thousands of people gathered in
London and other cities around the world to protest the May 25
killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, where a white police
officer detaining him knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
"People of colour are being failed by the system. The white
system," Banksy wrote in a short statement that accompanied the
image on the social media platform Instagram.
Banksy likened racism to a broken pipe flooding a downstairs
apartment, and said the downstairs occupants would be entitled
to break into the apartment upstairs to fix the problem.
"This is a white problem. And if white people don't fix it,
someone will have to come upstairs and kick the door in," Banksy
wrote alongside the image.
Banksy frequently chooses topical themes for his artworks,
which are normally stencilled on walls.
Last month, he showed a young boy choosing a nurse as the
superhero he wants to play with over Batman and Spiderman, in a
new artwork to encapsulate the gratitude Britons have felt
toward the country's National Health Service during the
coronavirus crisis.
(Writing by David Milliken; Editing by Hugh Lawson)