Two parts of the mural — African American slaves working on Washington’s Mount Vernon property and white men stepping over the body of a Native American — sparked protests nearly 50 years ago. Now, the entire 1936 mural is a step closer to being removed altogether after a 13-person committee recommended by a 10 to 1 vote with two abstentions to whitewash it (literally).
The explanation for the removal is that any depiction of brutal treatment of slaves or native Americans causes too much trauma:
“We come to these recommendations due to the continued historical and current trauma of Native Americans and African Americans with these depictions in the mural that glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, manifest destiny, white supremacy, oppression, etc. . .It’s not a counter-narrative if [the mural] traumatizes students and community members.”
Ironically the mural was done as part of the federally funded arts program during the depression, and the artist was Victor Arnautoff, a Russian-American with ties to the Communist Party and who later retired to the Soviet Union. The artist’s intent was to criticize Washington and US history with slavery and treatment of Indians, not to glorify it.
Personally I find it weird that the federal government funded the mural to begin with. My suggested solution to the current controversy is to whitewash the “Life of Washington” mural and replace it with a “Life of Stalin” mural. Here are a few examples of scenes that could be included:
- Soviet labor camps in Siberia
- Man-made starvation
- Demolition of churches
- Ethnic cleansing in eastern Europe
For more examples see:
Unlike the existing mural, these scenes should not cause any controversy in San Francisco since they have nothing to do with traumas suffered by people of color. Instead, according to beliefs popular in San Francisco, any suffering portrayed in the replacement mural is clearly just retribution for white privilege and homophobic superstitions. If done right it may even provoke an angry response from Vladimir Putin, which is yet another bonus.
At last something to bring everyone to together!
