You might be surprised to hear that students at the Richmond’s Washington High School have a habit of saying, “Let’s meet at the dead Indian.” That’s because there really is such a thing at the school: A sprawling fresco in its hallways painted way back in 1935 and 1936 contains one section depicting white colonizers stepping over the body of a dead Native American.
Native Americans and activists have been calling for the mural’s removal for decades, most recently in December. In fact, Washington High was denied landmark status in 2018 specifically because of the mural’s offensive nature to Native Americans. But the George Washington High School Alumni Association has launched a campaign to save the mural, and they’re taking their fight to the school board.
“Censorship of public art is a recurring threat,” the alumni group says in a release. “There are many New Deal murals depicting the founding of our country; very few even acknowledge slavery or the Native genocide. The [Victor] Arnautoff murals should be preserved for their artistic, historical, and educational value. Whitewashing them will simply result in another ‘whitewash’ of the full truth about American history.”
The alumni propose adding “interpretive panels to clarify the murals’ intent and document how they have been experienced by Native American, African American, and other students of color,” but otherwise keeping the 83-year-old mural intact.
Some historical preservationists also argue against the removal of the mural, and note that this particular work by New Deal-era artist Victor Arnautoff may have cultural value that many may not realize. “The murals at George Washington High School are one of the largest ensembles of New Deal artworks in a single site and therefore are highly significant,” the nonprofit Living New Deal said in an April 1 letter to the school board. “Artworks sometimes depict scenes that expose our country’s turbulent past and evoke controversy. Arnautoff, who studied with the controversial master muralist Diego Rivera, did not seek to glorify this history, but rather to provoke thinking and open discussion, as appropriate at a public school.”
This controversy is not unlike the racist statue debate over the now-removed section of the ‘Early Days’ monument at Civic Center. While Washington High added a set of “response murals” in the early 1970s, there is still plenty to dislike for a modern viewer looking at the “Life of George Washington” mural.
Sup. Matt Haney, who called the mural “embarrassing” while he was on the School Board, has also suggested renaming Washington High in 2016 since George Washington was a slave owner.
!!!!snip!
More at College Fix-
‘Glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, manifest destiny’
A Northern California public school district may remove a mural of George Washington from the halls of George Washington High School due to concerns that it’s offensive and demeaning to Native Americans and African-Americans.
Dude! That injun is simply taking a nap…… and the negros happen to have jobs! I know some find that offensive, but damn!
“Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.” Geo. Orwell
Let’s not talk about indian savagery during the early colonial period and beyond.
People, what are you now doing that in a couple of generations will be considered demeaning or offensive?
That is not a dead Indian. It is a good Indian.
MY God these students are empty headed tools of the SJW thugs. One only has to look at the mural to get a completely different meaning of the men walking over the body of the Indian. A meaning that would fit right in with their worldview and that is of the White Man stealing the land from the noble Red Man after he clipped him and checked his wallet for stuff. Make this play and the mural will now become protected by those soulless SJW zombies.
On another note as I’ve said time and again conservatives need to get their asses elected to school boards in order to control what happens to the education of your children. The left has it right, the first place they go is the school boards and from there they bring in like minded progressives who proceed to replace the education system with a left leaning propaganda machine capable of destroying or bending the historical truths.
North,
That was exactly my take away. That the colonists are advancing by stepping on the culture and lives of native Americans. We used to be taught art and that art was not a photograph but a statement. Funny that the teachers are too stupid to see the context. As to the Confederate statues, if they would actually study history and not the propaganda that we get, they would see that the Southern men were honorable and fighting for their freedom. Even the freedom of blacks who the North hated and Lincoln desired to ship to Africa.
As to slavery, both the North and the South held slaves and had economic assets that supported slavery. So we are told that two slave countries were fighting to eliminate slavery. Many think the war is over, remember it took several hundred years for the Irish to get their freedom.
The left never does anything but relate one side of a story. Students these days seem to lack a basic curiosity about our history and the realities of life back then. The laziness preconditions them to blindly accept what is spewed by their leftist teachers instead of exploring all of the information out there easily available. Thanks to the net information is easily at hand now more than ever but weak minds are too tempted by games and chatting.
If we don’t wipe out or history how can liberal democrat socialists rewrite it in order to remove their sordid past? Orwell would approve.
@OOLook
“People, what are you now doing that in a couple of generations will be considered demeaning or offensive?”
Surfing IOTW? 😳
oolook—————
Breathing…I’m an old white guy