Copyright and the American Way

Kate Kretz is an American artist, educator, and activist who has made it her mission to fight white supremacy and authoritarianism since the 2016 election. The MAGA Hat Collection focuses on ripping MAGA hats apart and making objects that function as physical manifestations of their racist truth.One of her most recent projects is the #fixedit American Diversity Flag. Pictured above, the flag aims to correct the all white stars version of the American Flag with stars that represent the melanin scale and the actual skin tones of the American people.Kretz started this project in August 2019 when she ordered an American flag and began ripping out the white machine stitched stars and replacing them with her hand embroidered ones. She published a sketch of her ongoing work on Instagram in February 2020 and filed a U.S. copyright for her concept.In June 2021, the singer Macy Gray wrote an op-ed calling for a new American flag based on melanin skin tones and shared a similar design saying the artist wished to remain anonymous and would not reveal the name. As many copyright infringement cases go, the smaller and less established artist, Kretz, could not afford to pursue the matter legally against the high-power and celebrity status of Macy Gray. Instead, she wrote a lengthy article for Medium, "David, Goliath, and The Futility of Copyright," in which she warns other artists about the limitations of copyright and she created the website.Follow the painstaking creation of “Reparation: Where Our Greatness Lies” on Instagram, and consider supporting this independent artist’s vision of a flag that represents ALL of us, the American Diversity Flag.