University students emotionally disturbed by statue of founding father
Posted on October 13, 2015 by Personal Liberty News Desk Views: 5,916
Thomas Jefferson recently came under attack by University of Missouri (Mizzou) students who want a statue of the founding father removed from their campus because it makes them feel oppressed.
Via Campus Reform:
Students at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) have repeatedly covered a statue of Thomas Jefferson with post-it notes that include insults like, “Racist,” “Rapist,” “Abuser,” “Sexist,” and “Slave Owner.”
The statue, located on the east side of the Francis Quadrangle, has been covered in post-it notes several times even after some students removed the notes.
The Missourian, Mizzou’s on-campus newspaper, reported that the statue was a gift from the Jefferson Club, which consists of a board of trustees and donors. The club donated the statue in 2000 to commemorate Jefferson and the history of Mizzou.
According to The Missourian, grad student Maxwell Little created a petition in August which said “The Thomas Jefferson statue that sits on the quad of the University of Missouri campus delivers a nonverbal code” that affects him “emotionally and psychologically.” The petition says the statue must be removed in order to “project a progressive environment.”
While the petition gained little support, Maxwell teamed with several students to create the hashtag #PostYourStateOfMind to “engage people in a critical conversation about sexual assault and racism.”
Bryant Hill, another student involved in the creation of the initiative said in an interview with The Missourian, that they weren’t trying to “completely shove that down anybody’s throat, but just the idea of open dialogue and becoming more knowledgeable about the situation is important.”
Little’s petition talks about everything you might expect— Jefferson’s slave ownership, his views about how abolition would create chaos and, yes, Sally Hemings— arguing that the university’s embrace of the statue equates tacit support for rape, slavery and oppression.
“Removing Jefferson’s statue alone will not eliminate the racial problems we face in America today, but it will help cure the emotional and psychological strain of history,” the petition argues.
What the conversation about the “emotional and psychological strain of history” would be like today if Jefferson and other men like him had never existed on this continent, we probably don’t want to imagine.
http://personalliberty.com/university-students-emotionally-disturbed-by-statue-of-founding-father/
