MLK Jr. Memorial Statue Completed Using Unpaid Chinese Laborers

[DeSwiss]

Source: Think Progress

MLK Jr. Memorial Statue Completed Using Unpaid Chinese Laborers

Think Progress
By Alex Seitz-Wald
Aug 26, 2011 at 11:30 am


Chinese sculpter Lei Yixin working
on the MLK Memorial

The opening ceremony for the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial has been postponed as Hurricane Irene closes in on the East Coast, but when it does open, the monument will do so under a different cloud as some point out that the way it was constructed violates some of the core principles for which King fought and died. While often overshadowed by his civil rights legacy, King was an outspoken defender of labor rights and was supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee when he was assassinated. But his memorial was built, in part, using free labor imported from China.

The foundation behind the memorial, which deserves tremendous praise for successfully pulling off the monumental project, controversially selected Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin — known for his bust of Mao Zedong — to be the lead sculptor on the project. Couldn’t the foundation have “chosen a black American, let alone an American,” critics ask? More egregiously, despite promises from the organization to use local unionized labor for the project, the sculpture was completed using workers imported from China working for nothing but “national pride.” Last September, the foundation promised in a statement:

“{We} will employ skilled craft workers from the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) to work with Master Lei Yixin, Sculptor of Record, to complete the assembly and installation,”

They eventually reneged on that vow, despite a plethora of unemployed skilled stonemasons in U.S. “Why do they need to come over to do the work when there are so many people here who can do it?” Scott Garvin, president of the Washington area union asked the Washington Post’s Michael Ruane. “It’s kind of a thumb in the eye,” he added. The local BAC chapter’s “membership has dropped in the past three years from 2,000 to 850 because of a decline in building projects.”

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/26/305092/mlk-jr-memorial-statue-completed-using-unpaid-chinese-laborers/

---

- If the United States of America has an underlying theme, it is IRONY......

DeSwiss




''An earthquake achieves what the law promises but does not in practice maintain - the equality of all men.''~Ignazio Silone

[indurancevile]

1. A travesty, especially considering how King died:

Martin Luther King: 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike Was Powered By the Rank and File

“…If you stand up straight, people can’t ride your back. And that’s what we did. We stood up straight.”

That's how Taylor Rogers explains the success of the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike. Rogers was a principal organizer of the historic strike.

That strike ended in victory, but it was also the setting for the tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was warned by many that the situation in Memphis was too volatile to resolve peacefully. Nevertheless he made the trip to Memphis to rally the city and speak on behalf of the as-yet-unrecognized Local 1733. On this trip Dr. King tragically met his assassin’s bullet on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

http://www.tdu.org/node/870

[DeSwiss]

2. America:

- ''Home of the honorarium/slap-in-the-face.''

[Raschel]

15. And a travesty how that statue turned out. No personality, & the arms folded as if he's in a casket

[defendandprotect]

20. +1000% ---

There's so much negative about it that you can't even get to the fact of how

much of the spirit and positive things about MLK, Jr. and the movement are missing --

not only the courage of MLK, Jr. and the people in overturning Segregation, Inc. --

but MLK, Jr.'s anti-war stand which also took immense courage --

and his battle for the impoverished in America -- !!

So much is missing -- !!

[indurancevile]

23. looks kind of like mao. not so much like king.

[NBachers]

26. Egads!

[indurancevile]

35. this is the photo the sculptor worked from:

and here's another frontal of king:



and the sculpture:

[Confusious]

36. He looks pissed off

not that he wouldn't have reason to be, if alive today, but....

All of the pictures have his eyes much more open, and caring, and hopeful.

not pissed off,

[Fearless]

51. Yeah. I think it's sad. He wanted people to come together after all.

[Raschel]

46. I see the resemblance to King, but it does make him look like a military figure. (the King statue)

The brows are more furrowed instead of high and rounded, and everything is very stiff.

It needs to be replaced!

[rabs]

28. Oriental- looking eyes? n/t

[DeSwiss]

31. Artistic vision and taste is variable....

...and I try to steer a wide berth, if for no other reason than in support of artistic freedom. Then again, I know what I like and I agree with your assessment. He looks uncannily like a black version of Mao.

On the other hand, I view public statuary of this kind rather like a secular form of worship of cultural idols. A modern form of demi-god making.


- They did that in Rome and look what it got them......

[JJW]

3. Beyond Shameful

Enough!

[Necronomiconomics]

4. MLK quote on economic exploitation

From the Riverside Church speech, April 4, 1967

"I am disappointed with our failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism.

"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just.""

http://www.husseini.org/2007/01/martin-luther-king-jr-why-i-am.html

[Butch350]

5. You people will find fault with anything...

May the chinese did it out of pride. Gee whiz chill.

[DeSwiss]

6. Maybe if they had asked us to build their statue of Mao.....

And for free too!

BTW, which "you people" did you have in mind???

[Fearless]

8. Yeah I find fault with slave labor. I just think MLK would have too... wonder why.

:eyes:

[NYC Liberal]

10. Do you think if they had been offered a decent wage they

would have turned it down?

Something tells me they would not have.

[indurancevile]

13. They supposedly raised $120 million for the memorial. who got the money?

The stone & the artist didn't cost $120 million.

It's a travesty. The MLK memorial, built with fucking foreign slave labor.

[Hissyspit]

17. So you're saying, we DON'T need to fill skilled (even temporary) jobs here in the United States?

Really?

[Bluebear]

25. "You people", eh?

[alarimer]

70. upaid laborers = slaves.

Why the euphemism? Let's call it what it is.

Kind of ironic.

[the_chinuk]

7. This is exactly why we can't have nice things. n/t k/r

[izquierdista]

9. Wasn't there a story of another free statue...

I believe it was left at the gate....

[mahina]

69. Exactly.

Thank you.

[VPStoltz]

11. I have to wonder what Dr. King would think of a memorial that costs this much - for anyone.

[indurancevile]

14. I think he'd ask where the $120 million went, if the workers didn't get paid.

[undeterred]

72. +1 Brazillion

[msanthrope]

12. How many posts until someone blames Obama? nt

[defendandprotect]

19. Hey, IF Obama had anything to do with this statue... then he deserves blame ... meanwhile ....

the criticism of the work continues on, justifiably --

and it looks like the MLK, Jr. family just had too much trust in the

panel -- heavy on the corporate side -- and that was a mistake!!

Now too late and we're left with this "Memorial" -- monstrous in size and execution!!



Monstrous - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster ...
Definition of MONSTROUS. 1. obsolete: strange, unnatural. 2: having extraordinary often overwhelming size : gigantic. 3. a: having the qualities or appearance of a ...
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monstrous - Cached

[Fearless]

50. +1

[girl gone mad]

27. At least 25.

Care to comment on the subject at hand?

[24601]

73. Any president takes credit for anything good on his shift and goes

all out to blame others for anything bad. Example - lots of "I" when Bin Laden was killed. You'd think he was on the mission. But can anyone find any acknowledgment of responsibility when the seals were killed early this month?

If this was a great memorial, he'd be pushing old ladies out of the way to reach the mike & get in front of the cameras. With the criticism, any shortcomings will be somebody else's fault.

[JJW]

16. Well now that you mention him

Has Mr. O found his pair of soft shoes yet? Wisconsinites are still protesting and getting arrested.

[DeSwiss]

30. Apparently not.

- Maybe he should call the prop department again.....

[No Elephants]

43. Nothing calculated about that photo. No sirrreee.

[defendandprotect]

18. Memorial cost $120 million ... and evidently high corporate presence on panel ....!!!

Lots of criticism on this very unattractive bit of work by a Chinese artist --

who studied in Russia!!

[Bluenorthwest]

59. Ah, that explains the Soviet era look to the 'work'

It reminds me of a giant Lenin that used to stand in East Berlin.

[bluedigger]

21. This is just shameful. n/t

[daleo]

22. It seems like everything is wrong these days

And big business co-opts every symbol of decency.

[orbitalman]

24. K & R

[No Elephants]

29. It's only a nod to tradition. Washington, D. C. was built by slaves.

Of course, that was before the Emancipation Proclamation and this is after. So, we don't have slaves anymore, only "volunteers" and "interns."

Too bad the statue is so unrepresentative of Reverend King, though, both in appearance and in demeanor. Representing him speaking or marching would have been preferable, as would a statue that actually looked like him.

So, $120 million for something made by "free labor," huh? Sounds about right.

[Judi Lynn]

32. How long will it be before some racist M.F., presenting himself as an overwrought "patriot"

uses this shitstorm as a rationale to make his seedy way into the memorial and blow the bejesus out of it?

The likelihood for this story was written already before someone decided to kick up this pathetic outrage to detract from an event which has been a LONG time coming in memory of the triumph of progress, even at such a heartbreaking slowness, over true evil during the time it has had the upper hand.

Those of us who know from experience how racists act, think, behave, having seen it endlessly throughout our lives, have seen these fools referring to Dr. King as "Martin Luther Coon," as they snicker themselves senseless, amazed at their own great wit, these filthy rumor monger who spent so many dirty hours gossiping, gibbering, swapping lies about civil rights workers during the horrifying violence of that era weren't even slightly surprised when this story started getting kicked around.

Pity.

In the end, goodness is STILL going to win.

[indurancevile]

34. what? you're saying criticism of the sculpture or the use of unpaid chinese labor = racist?

or that criticism will succor racists who want to blow up the statue?

there was a lot of criticism when the choice of artist was announced, e.g.:

But even with these changes, some Black artists, including sculptor Ed Dwight, who had vied to be the project's sculptor, believe that depiction of King is anything but correct. Dwight has said that King would "be spinning in his grave" at the idea of a representative of the Chinese government--which once called King "a political lapdog"--being the lead sculptor of the memorial.

"This guy knows nothing about King," said Dwight of Lei, who is collaborating with Black artists James Chaffers and Jon Lockard, both University of Michigan professors, on the sculpture. "I've seen his rendering. It's not a good likeness of King. King never stood like that. He's standing with his legs spread like he's guarding something. His brow is larger than it should be. King never wore a bulky suit on that. The suit looks like the kind of suit that the Chinese people wear."

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_23_113/ai_n27500696/

http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-11-28/news/17270087_1_memorial-s-organizers-dr-king-american-granite/2





according to the reports, a chinese sculptor was chosen because no americans have the expertise.

considering that big multinationals funded the project, i wouldn't be surprised if there were other considerations.

[pam4water]

33. I think it's an Asian looking version of MLK. And it's not a good likeness over all. The distance

from the eyes to the nose it too small and the eye are angled up to high. The least they could do is make a good likeness of him. And the mouth is cartoon-ish.

The Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial is a great likeness of Lincoln, why not the MLK. I'm disappointed in the whole lay out of the MLK Memorial :( The statue reminds me a bit of a statue I saw of Genghis Khan, the historical reciprocal of MKL XD

[indurancevile]

38. actually, now that i've cruised the net for sculptures of mlk, this actually is one of the best.

[Raschel]

47. +1 . It looks very military to me and not a good likeness.

[Judi Lynn]

37. After long struggle, MLK has home on National Mall (comments from people who KNEW him.)

Posted: Aug 23, 2011 7:46 AM CDT
Updated: Aug 23, 2011 2:56 PM CDT
By BRETT ZONGKER and ERRIN HAINES
Associated Press

~snip~
Congressman John Lewis, who met King as a teenager and is the lone surviving speaker from the 1963 March on Washington, said the statue is the best likeness he's ever seen.

"He's not looking down, he's looking straight ahead," Lewis said. "Dr. King was an emancipator, he was a liberator. He liberated not just a people. He liberated a nation. His ideas, his message of peace and love are still liberating people. I think people will come from all over the world to be inspired to go out to act, to do something."

When the Rev. Harold Carter, pastor of Baltimore's New Shiloh Baptist Church, saw King's statue for the first time, he was awestruck.

"Oh, God. You got him," Carter said, looking up to King's face, along with more than a dozen other pastors from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia who helped raise more than $1.5 million for the project from their congregations.

"This is a king among presidents," said Joe Ratliff, pastor of Houston's Brentwood Baptist Church, who was with Carter's group. "That's what I think every time I see it."

Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador who was an aide to King, has taken multiple trips to track the monument's progress.

"The first time I saw it, I broke down and cried," Young said. "It's so beautiful. It's such a fitting statement.

"You know, he was always self-conscious about being short. ... Now he's a giant of a man. Isn't that something?"

http://www.wsmv.com/story/15314210/after-long-struggle-mlk-has-home-on-national-mall

[Le Taz Hot]

39. Well, it should fit right in with the White House then

since that was also built by slave labor. I'm being cynical, of course.

[Raschel]

48. I think they should have had a brother do the statue.

[Kind of Blue]

40. Yes, the U.S.'s underlying theme is irony.

Washington Monument, slave labor. The Capitol, slave labor. White House, slave labor. Jefferson Memorial, to glorify a slave owner. Washington Memorial, glorify a slave owner but at least he freed his upon death. I wonder if there is a major historical landmark or waterway, North or South in the US of A that was not built and maintained using slave labor. But yeah, they were AMERICAN slaves so all of those monuments stand. And yeah, American prison labor grows while we decry the Chinese prison labor to dig up the stones for MLK's monument.

Irony, indeed. Maybe we should clean up our own house and take the beam from our own eyes, as we struggle for a better world.

All of it sucks to me, from the past monuments to the present controversy. Bottom-line though, in a world of monumental imperfection and great beauty, eventually all of this will be forgotten and only the memory of what the memorials stand for will remain, just as with the tremendous controversy over the Vietnam Memorial created by a young Asian-American woman.

[No Elephants]

44. "Maybe we should clean up our own house and take the beam from our own eyes,"

IMO, this would be a beam in our own eye.

And lamenting use of slave labor in the creation of this monument does not mean one approves of slave labor in other contexts. In fact, that seems like an odd notion.

[Kind of Blue]

45. As I stated previously, all of it, from old monuments

built by slaves to this new one, sucks to me. I cannot criticize one without criticizing all of it. Please lament away in this context.

[Pooka Fey]

41. Unpaid Chinese Laborers? FREE LABOR?? You mean, like, SLAVES?

My head is currently spinning like Linda Blair's in the "The Exorcist".

[OhioChick]

42. K&R n/t

[christx30]

49. MLK encased in Carbonite

as soon as his wife tracks him down, she'll free him and they'll continue the fight. That is... if they can get way from Jabba.

[in_cog_ni_to]

52. Once again:

This country sucks so bad.

[xloadiex]

53. More to the story

Maybe they should have used smaller stones?

http://rt.com/usa/news/king-chinese-monument-mlk-241/

-snip

Edward Jackson Jr, executive architect behind the monument, added to the Post that the memorial’s sculptor, Lei Yixin, wasn’t chosen over money issues but because of his talent and capabilities. “Not only did we need an artist, we needed someone with the means and methods of putting those large stones together,” Jackson said. “We don’t do this in America. We don’t handle stones of this size.”

Some critics believe that the job could have been done domestically, and that by using materials from the hometown of Martin King or having more from the legion of unemployed Americans working towards completing the monument would have been more appropriate than outsourcing

[Judi Lynn]

54. Never too late to add the facts, xloadiex. Thank you!

Welcome to D.U., by the way! :hi:

[defendandprotect]

55. +1 --

[Pooka Fey]

56. + 1

[Bluenorthwest]

60. What bullshit.

Here is the work in progress that says otherwise. http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/
Yeah, we don't handle stones of this size here. I see. Just don't have it in us, and Mt Rushmore was made by three sisters from Shanghai and shipped here.

[Judi Lynn]

63. It was so exciting when they transported Mt. Rushmore to the mall, wasn't it?

And it only took fourteen years to carve. Amazing.

[Major Hogwash]

61. It's a work of art. And Lei Yixin is absolutely a genius in his own right.

I'm surprised that anyone is finding fault with his work.
Imagine the pressure that he must have been under while he worked on it -- especially in today's politcal environment.
Man, if that was me working on that statue, I'd have never got it done because I would have been too busy looking over my shoulder for someone with a gun pointed at me.

This statue will exist for 100s of years, maybe 1000s of years, and it is truly something to behold.

[provis99]

57. It's a crappy statue by an untalented hack.

sort of the worst of totalitarian kitsch.

[hunter]

58. Clearly we should have hired the sculptors of Big Butter Jesus...

...for that "Made in USA" label.



King of Kings Statue (wikipedia)

I don't think Dr. King would have us hating on the Chinese artists who built this sculpture, it doesn't sound like anything he dreamed of.

[Judi Lynn]

65. Wow, you've chosen "Touchdown Jesus of the Lake!" Superb.

It's good to give a nod, too, to the Oral Roberts Giant Hands statue!

[mahina]

62. Plus it is hideous.

Just dreadful. The artist's literal interpretation of text is painful, and the statue looks nothing like Dr. King.

Sad.

[Judi Lynn]

64. That's not what those who knew him, and his family say about the statue.

On edit:

That includes Civil Rights worker, and friend of Dr. King, a man who was beaten to a pulp by Klansmen during a march in Selma, Democratic Congressman John Lewis.

[mahina]

68. I am not saying that Dr. King should not have a memorial.

Far from it- his memorial should be excellent. This is pedestrian, clunky, obvious, without spirit.

My evaluation of the merit of this work of 'art' is not in any way influenced by the suffering endured in the struggle for equality, nor should you imagine that I don't also love Dr. King.

His photograph hangs in my diningroom next to Bobby, where it has for a decade.

Peace.

[ClosureHasCome]

66. Take some sculpting classes and show them up. n/t

[mahina]

67. Welcome to DU.

Charmed.

[Pooka Fey]

71. The choice of a Chinese sculptor for this project is Incredibly Bad Taste

and here's why: It is normal for the artists/artisans of a particular country to celebrate their own National Heros in their artwork. Martin Luther King, Jr. is right up there with Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. That this project was "outsourced" to China is appalling in general, and during the worst economic slump since the great Depression, when so many Americans need work, it both outrageous and unacceptable.

Artistic creation isn't only about this or that sculptor's talent with the hammer and chisel. It's about WHO HE IS and what is in his heart; and those factors are determined to a very large degree by his/her culture. The fact that they brought in Chinese slave labor to complete the work is just another way for The EMPIRE to rub American artists and artisans' nose in the shit.

That's why dozens of posters on this thread have mentioned that this depiction of MLK looks like Chairman Mao or a Totalitarian, arms crossed, etc. Americans DO have a particular and recognizable body language. However, they hired someone who grew up in a foreign cultural context, and someone who would not be well qualified to bring to life that particular American essence from stone.

Like another poster on this thread stated, the excuse about Americans not knowing how to work with large stones is just BULLSHIT to the infinite degree. I can't believe the journalist in attendance didn't immediately ask about how on earth the Mount Rushmore sculptures came into existence.

This is just another example to me of how THE EMPIRE can take a good idea, and turn it into utter shit bringing that idea into existence. Maybe some future generation will have the good sense to remove this insult to MLK and America from the public sphere, and start over again from square one using American artists of all races, and Union stone-workers-same deal. That would be something respectful of MLK's legacy. I won't hold my breath.