Controversy on Dana Schutz's Biennial depicting Emmet Till in a painting titled, "Open Casket."

Dana Schultz depicting Emmett Till in a painting titled, “Open Casket,” to conjure the emotion of empathy in relevance, creates a controversy surrounding the use of appropriation and profiting from gruesome history. Although, Schultz’s intentions seem innocent, it was in her execution that she lost the attention of her audience, by assuming her part as a mother could be of relevance to the death of Emmett Till through the eyes of his grieving mother. Empathy seems less relevant in this situation and more through attempted sympathy for the death. To describe empathy, would lead to the fulfillment of the same scenario that both, Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, have endured. Cultural differentiation can spark an emotional reaction outside the community concerned, and from that, it should end at a reaction and a willingness to do better for the rise of that topic. Here, Schultz, being a white woman, cannot fully emphasize with the grieving mother, because of the historical significance and modern day treatment of African American citizens, and it continues to be a problematic cause for change. Her inclusion to the story is only through the eyes of being a parent, which would then lead to the grieving of a dead child that has no implication of racial subversion. The original photograph of Emmett Till serves to show the injustice within racial segregation, and the brutality that he was faced with for the assumption of flirting with a white woman. In comparison to one another, the original photograph caused shocking reactions, whereas the abstract display creates a more interpretive result until explained in writing, which does not do the story justice. Recreating the depiction through a more abstract colorful representation distracts away from the gruesome display of a mutilated corpse, and it is a fear that this new portrayal may detract from the seriousness of the situation, and instead is left as a mockery imitation of a national event.