Respect and Courtesy on deviantART

To:  Offenders on deviantART

Recently this deviation received a Daily Deviation. The artist, kirkfinger, simply searched the internet for a random picture of a man in white robes. The response by people from the United Arab Emirates who assumed the man was meant to be Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan was not the most pleasant. They left rude comments on the piece in English as well as in Arabic without attempting to find out the meaning behind the piece or finding out if the artist understood Arabic to curse at him in that language.

This petition isn't to embarrass/point the finger at the people who didn't find out more about him, it's just a wake-up call, an announcement to remind people to not jump to conclusions or to hate without reason. deviantART is a home for artists who want to look deeper and send their message to the world, behavior like this shouldn't be ignored or treated in any other manner than a civilized one.

This petition urges the offenders to apologize to kirkfinger or simply try to understand before taking hasty action and attempt to make his DD everything that any deviant would want. A DD is a cause for celebration and a chance to see the best of skill, creativity, and deviousness at work.

Please read what kirkfinger put in his journal:

"first of all its an honor to be selected for the daily deviation, too bad my its been overshadowed by people calling me a racist, a terrorist and other things in Arabic i cant read. by people saying they were going to rip out my eyes and cut my hands off. nice people. real art lovers. thanks for all the (ZERO) personal notes from people asking me what the piece means or if it was even supposed to be who they think it is. Just a bunch of people spouting hate like a sprinkler toy. undirected, completely ignorant, hate. not everyone hates Arabs. I have nothing against them. I wish people would get all the facts before they start making threats of violence on public websites.

if they would have asked i would have told them that the idea came from seeing a guy in really outrageous African dress in a car, but with part of his robe stuck in the door. I thought a religiously clean white robe would be even funnier. and that i just found the best source image in google i could that had "a guy" in "a robe" sitting in "that position" that i could use. and thanks to those of you who "get it" its about nobility being put in its place. namely, in a place where most of us are. and tried to do it in a funny way."



Thank you,
khayraB

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Respect and Courtesy on deviantART Petition to Offenders on deviantART was created by and written by Khayra Bundakji (khayra.b@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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