NY museum to remove Roosevelt statue

[Dial H For Hero]

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/559795-ny-museum-to-remove-roosevelt-statue



The statue of former President Theodore Roosevelt that sits in front of the the American Museum of Natural History will be taken down after officials voted unanimously to do so Monday.

The New York City Public Design Commission on Monday voted to relocate the statue to a cultural institution dedicated to Roosevelt's legacy, according to The New York Times.

The museum staff and city officials had agreed last year amid protests over racial injustice that the statue should be removed due concerns over its racist depictions. The statue shows Roosevelt on horseback leading an African man and a Native American man who are following on foot.

“The American Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the time. “The City supports the Museum’s request. It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue.”

[Goonch]

1. 😲

[SoonerPride]

2. Yeah that statue is pretty cringeworthy

It needs to be relocated and with a LOT of contextualizing in the proper setting.

[lagomorph777]

7. Eesh. It sure is!

[Hugin]

8. Putinesque in a way.

Wow.

Although, totally Teddy. I'm thinking a hundred years is enough.

[blogslug]

3. good

that statue is messed up

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. Good.

[FalloutShelter]

6. X1000

[Chainfire]

5. Something else for the rightwingnuts to make water over.

[Scrivener7]

9. Always hated that thing.

[Solly Mack]

10. That thing is horrible.

[tirebiter]

11. He was the first Progressive president

[bahboo]

12. my first reaction was....not this again....Teddy Roosevelt?

until I saw the statue. It's horrible and insulting....take it away...

[flotsam]

13. I think the statue may not mean what you think

It would be easy to use 21st century eyes to think the statue denigrates Blacks and Indians but when I looked for facts the sculptor extolled and honored at very least Indian cultures and fully commiserated with it's demise. Here is a link to his Wiki page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earle_Fraser_(sculptor)
"His father, Thomas Fraser, was an engineer who worked for railroad companies as they expanded across the American West. A few months before his son was born, Thomas Fraser was one of a group of men sent to recover the remains of the 7th Cavalry Regiment following George Armstrong Custer's disastrous engagement with the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho forces at the Battle of the Little Bighorn." snip
"As a child, James Fraser was exposed to frontier life and the experience of Native Americans, who were being pushed ever further west or confined to Indian reservations. These early memories were expressed in many of his works, from his earlier trials, such as the bust Indian Princess,[2] to his most famous projects, such as End of the Trail and the Indian Head (Buffalo) nickel." snip
"Fraser's work in Washington includes The Authority of Law and The Contemplation of Justice at the U.S. Supreme Court; the south pediment and statues at the National Archives; Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin at the U.S. Treasury; and the Second Division Monument, completed with the firm of architect John Russell Pope. His commissions also include coins and medals, such as the World War I Victory Medal, the Navy Cross,[5] and the Indian Head (Buffalo) nickel."