Working with a group of 15, 16 year olds in front of an artwork which can be interpretted as about ideas within, and ideals of, landscape, contrasting the idyllic with the mundane and the poor, I asked the group what they saw on the screens. One of a group of boys answered snidely, Jungle Kids.
I challenged them - who said it? What did they mean? I was angry at the time and no one took responsibility for the words. The fingers pointed in three directions. The group of three were 2 white boys and 1 black boy. I decided not to pursue it. I felt it was a completely different issue depending which one of the three had said it. And, thinking about it, I'm not even sure they meant it to be derrogatory - maybe they had the Jungle Book in mind - and that's meant to be acceptable, isn't it?