Is this helping race realtions?

Is it just me or does it look like the African American guy in this mural is grabbing himself? And I have to say the white woman does not look very happy to be standing next to him. This mural looks more like an old fashioned hostage situation, than a positive statement on race relations. I see this every day on the way to work and it made me want to find out who did it and why, but unfortunately I have not been able to get any info. The park however has an interesting history.

This mural is in the O'Bryant Square park at SW Park Ave & Washington St. This site is supposedly near the clearing where W.C. Overton and Asa Lovejoy agreed to found a town in November 1843. The square itself is named for Hugh Donaldson O'Bryant, a pioneer who migrated to Oregon from Georgia in 1843. O'Bryant was a carpenter who founded Portland's first public library in 1850. He was elected as Portland's first mayor in the city's first election on April 7, 1851, by receiving 104 of the 222 votes cast.


The park is pretty sad and grungy and is also referred to as Paranoid Park due to its near-exclusive frequenting by street kids and homeless people in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. One of the funnier descriptions of the park: "If Pioneer Courthouse Square is Portland’s living room, O’Bryant Square is its dimly lit back porch."