A white New York artist is defending his decision to feature a black man in a trash can in one of his hotel lobby murals.

After facing a storm of backlash, 71-year-old painter Arnie Charnick told the New York Daily News he wanted to show a suffering soul so he chose a black man to convey that message. He was hired in January to finish the art installation which features various types of people and spans from 1904 to 1990.

“It’s a suffering soul,” he said. “That’s what it’s meant to show.”

The “Loosey Deucey” part of the installation portraying 1965 to 1990s Times Square caught the attention of Hotel Edison staff when some people saw a black man in a trash can with a sign reading "PLACE LITTER HERE."

“I took the sign out,” Charnick told the Daily News Tuesday, June 12. “I could have made it a white guy,” he said, adding that a photograph of the city 40 years ago inspired the detail in the lower left corner in a wall-sized painting.

Photo: Arnie Charnick

While some staff made it clear that the image was racially insensitive, it didn't faze Charnick. In fact, he said that he encourages discourse around his art.

“I welcome remarks from people,” he said. “I don’t like it when they get lawyers.”

Another part of the large piece called “Troupe du Jour" spans from 1904 to 1935, and it features homages to Buster Keaton as Hamlet, the magician Harry Houdini and white actor Al Jolson in blackface from The Jazz Singer.

Charnick compares white actors in blackface to athletes protesting racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem.

“The Jazz Singer was the first talkie,” he said. “And while it wasn’t in my consciousness, a white actor in blackface taking a knee relates to black athletes taking a knee in protest today.”

Although he did not clarify why he compared the two things, he did tell the Daily News he supports the athletes "100 percent."

Black man in a trash can

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