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So last night Teirmpo said this: https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1275255578483470336 And this did something to my head. It got me thinking. In 2018 the city of Kalamazoo, MI, took down this sculpture attached to a fountain located in downtown Bronson Park.  The name of the fountain is "Fountain of the Pioneers," designed by Frank Lloyd Wright associate, Alfonso Ianneli, the fountain was built with funds from the WPA and dedicated in 1940. In 2016 the fountain was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  Yes, it really is a sculpture of a white man with a club standing over a Native American. People have bitched to the city of Kalamazoo for decades the fountain is offensive and demanded it's removal. In 2017 the "Unite the Right" hate march in Charlottesville happened and once again people insisted the Bronson Park sculpture was offensive. People threw red paint on it and tried to break it apart.  In March of 2018, the city of Kalamazoo voted to remove the offensive sculpture. Not because they finally decided Fountain of the Pioneers is racist and offensive, but because the sculpture was damaged and likely to fall on top of someone in the future. When the city found out they could either spend $1 million restoring it or $200k to mothball it, they chose the cheaper option. It’s a nationally recognized historic relic, it looks so good in front of Kalamazoo’s Art Deco City Hall, but surely someone, maybe one of the local museums will display it after it’s spruced up. So far, there have been no takers. So, is the statue racist and offensive, or is it art and should be preserved? Should any monument celebrating white people killing poc and indigenous people be recognized as art?
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Jun 23, 2020 13:09
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| # ? May 9, 2024 05:12 |
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This just in https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1275379766959505408 TRUMP
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Jun 23, 2020 13:10
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Bold and brash.
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Jun 23, 2020 13:11
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the reason conservatives saying "but this is just history in the past you're smashing" sounds like total nonsense to the people doing the smashing is because those people believe the statues are symbolic manifestations of an oppressive social order that is acting on them right now. likewise, modern-day egyptians (other than some ISIS wackos) are not smashing ancient egyptian artifacts because the polytheistic regime of that time is literally ancient history to them, so there's now an attempt to preserve it. the chinese did not invent cultural revolutions either but it's a similar dynamic, contrast to today where there's an attempt in china now to preserve the older history instead of smashing it. HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:So, is the statue racist and offensive, or is it art and should be preserved? Should any monument celebrating white people killing poc and indigenous people be recognized as art? the last revolution the U.S. had was the civil war but that didn't clear out the backwards confederate supporters who still fly confederate flags and have been re-incorporated over and over again for the past 160 years. 
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Jun 23, 2020 13:29
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a lot of the Confederate crap emerged after Plessy v Ferguson when the supreme court ruled it was legal to subjugate an entire demographic of Americans. that's when most of the civil war monuments went up across the country. full disclosure, I was part of a letter writing campaign to the Kalamazoo Gazette when I attended WMU. I think a letter published from a local resident insisted the statue wasn't offensive because it was about local history and the pioneers' enduring spirit or some poo poo. Also, in the SW corner of Bronson Park there is a Hopewell burial mound. 
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Jun 23, 2020 13:42
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I’ve always found the “But it’s art!!’ argument extremely stupid. Most people can’t even agree on what actually is and what isn’t art. Oh, but “good art sparks a discussion”? I can see that being valid for a banana duct-taped to a wall, that might lead to some interesting points of view; but what value is there in proudly displaying a statue of some general from times past striking a heroic pose on a horse, erected a long time after the end of the war he actually lost? What “debate” is there to be had? “But look at the skill that went into making it!” I’m sure with the right craftsmanship you could make a stained-glass portrait of Hitler look pretty awesome, still wouldn’t be anything but tasteless putting it up in a public park. “But they’re erasing history!” No. They’re erasing the public symbols of worshipping that history.
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Jun 23, 2020 16:04
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there was a statue of king george in new york that was ripped down during the revolutionary war, should we put that one back?
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Jun 23, 2020 16:05
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thats not at you op, that's just what you ask people who bitch about removing confederate statues
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Jun 23, 2020 16:05
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i dont think you should have statues of people but instead abstracts of ideals worth living towards. imo
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Jun 23, 2020 16:06
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Art is not inherently precious, there is lots of art, make something new. We should be constantly rotating in and out installations.
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Jul 8, 2023 20:18
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