{"id":18103,"date":"2017-08-17T11:39:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T15:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18103"},"modified":"2017-08-17T11:39:58","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T15:39:58","slug":"politics-as-usual-it-isnt-just-a-statue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-it-isnt-just-a-statue\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: It isn\u2019t just a statue"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is a statue?
\nIs it a work of art?
\nIs it a representation of a thought, a feeling?
\nIs it a commemoration of an event?
\nIs it a representation of, or honour of, someone of importance?
\nTo celebrate someone who has made a difference in one\u2019s community?
\nClearly a statue can be all of these things depending on the context.
\nHow many of us walk by statues every day and never give them a thought beyond an occasional, \u201cwell, isn\u2019t that nice?\u201d type of thing?
\nThere are a number of famous statues on the campus here at York University that I see every day.
\nI have admired them \u2013 the water sculpture near the West Accolade building is particularly beautiful, if in an odd kind of way. We have a few statues, and a bust \u2013 or two \u2013 of famous folks who helped found various colleges and departments within the university. But none that seem to engender feelings of hostility or controversy.
\nWell, none that I am aware of. Just lovely mute testaments of honour to those who played a part in the development of the institution.
\nWhich brings me to my point: statues and busts and sculptures can be things of beauty; however, they can also be symbols of oppression and of racism, which create flashpoints for conflict and violence, as the recent events in North Carolina have demonstrated.
\nThe removal of a statue of a leader of the Confederacy \u2013 a movement which, at its heart, was about wanting to keep the slave trade alive – was the ostensible reason for a march on Charlottesville City Hall, in protest by a group of white nationalists\/racists\/neo-nazis and other assorted thugs.
\nThe armed protesters argued that the removal of the statue was the removal of an important part of their storied past and that they were protecting or taking back their history. Whatever the heck that means.
\nI am not sure what it is they are \u201ctaking back\u201d, but it certainly wasn\u2019t history. And it certainly wasn\u2019t their history regardless. Why anyone would want to claim that history as their own speaks volumes about them, as they soon demonstrated. Amply.
\nThe disgusting display of violence and racism belied their stated purpose in any event.
\nIt wasn\u2019t about a statue, but about what that statue represented: a time of deep racial divide in the United States, and the odious desire of some folks to return to that time.
\nThe removal of that statue, and all that it represents, frankly, should have happened quite some time ago, in my humble opinion; the same with the removal of the confederate flag on legislative buildings. It shouldn\u2019t need to be said, but clearly it does – these racist symbols have no place in the modern world.
\nThere are many monuments, in many countries, that were erected in a much different time and place in history.
\nCareful and considered conversations are needed about what these monuments represent and whether they should be removed as a consequence.
\nAs our values change, so too should what we choose to honour in our public spaces.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas What is a statue? Is it a work of art? Is it a representation of a thought, a feeling? Is it a commemoration of an event? Is it a representation of, or honour of, someone of importance? To celebrate someone who has made a difference in one\u2019s community? Clearly a statue can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4HZ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 13:50:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}