Cleavage

Growing up in the South, Cloar bore witness every day to the racial divide. He watched as children who once played together grew up and separated, friendship being replaced with social expectations and racial prejudice. For boys like Cloar, it all came down to the word “Mister.” There was a time in every boy’s life when things would have to change, when African American boys would have to start calling their white friends Mister, forever changing the dynamic. In this lithograph, we see the progression of that racial gap through the story of two boys, separated over time by the racial divide like the growing of a fence between them.