Behind the debate of whether graffiti is art or vandalism, there is another discourse, remaining relatively untouched by the popular press, at least in the parts of North America and Europe that I have personally lived in.

Background
Teenagers and adults alike have a need for cultural myths and folktales to provide a storyline, giving families a context of the past from which to draw models and visions for the future. While Claude Lévi-Strauss is falling off in importance for many researchers, he remains a leading theorist and figure for many conservative, traditional researchers in the United States. He states that myths reinforce the solidarity and identity of the group; and he considers myth a universal organizing principle that is a collective manifestation of individual minds within a social group. Consciously or not, high-school academic canon and religious doctrine strips minority cultures of the opportunity to collectively share legends and myths. William S. Simmons, for example, argues in