When the statues come down

The unnecessary killing of George Floyd led to historic unrest. All over the world protestors in support of #BlackLivesMatter are defacing walls and statues with the words “I can’t breathe.” The protests are resulting in statues being removed one way or another.

In the city of Bristol, England a bronze statue of Edward Colston – former slave trader – was torn down and thrown into the harbor. <= Check out the BBC interview with Bristol’s Mayor Marvin Rees! In multiple cities in Belgium, statues of King Leopold II were set on fire or defaced. Belgian’s colonial history in Africa under Leopold was brutal and dark. In Antwerp, a defaced statue of Leopold was taken down by the city and delivered to a museum for restoration and storage. An act to be repeated by cities in the US.    

A few days ago, in the US city of Philadelphia, a statue of a former Police Commissioner and Mayor Frank Rizzo was removed by the city. The removal was already planned due to the renovation of the plaza where the statue sat. The statue was defaced during #BLM protests and removal was expedited. In the following days, a mural of Frank Rizzo at an Italian market in South Philly was painted over. 

My family has been in Pennsylvania for centuries. I lived outside Philadelphia, in East Norriton Township, as a child when Frank Rizzo was mayor (1972-1980). Race was very important then but not in a healthy way. I grew up in white privilege. There was great division between black and white people at the time exacerbated by Rizzo’s support of police brutality which was particularly anti-black. My parents pulled me out of public school (free) and sput me in a Catholic one for a few years due to violent racial problems between students at school.           

In the US state of Virginia, The Mayor of the city of Richmond, also decided to voluntarily remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee, a Confederate (Southern) General from the US Civil War. Beginning July 1^st of this year legislation gives Virginia cities the discretion to remove Confederate statues. That law was passed in April 2020 and ended a former prohibition in Virginia of the removal of Confederate war memorials. 

Governor Northam of Virginia announced that the statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond would come down immediately and put in storage. Shortly after that announcement, a judge temporarily blocked the removal of the statue for 10-days in response to a speedily filed claim of irreparable harm should it come down. The statue sits on a portion of land in the city of Richmond that was deeded to the state. The effect of the language of the deed on removal of the statue will be resolved in the courts review. It must be pointed out that threats of removal of this same statue sparked the Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, VA in 2017.

I lived in Richmond, VA while at school at the University of Richmond. I was there in 1984 when the Richmond Spiders Men’s basketball team made it to the NCAA tournament. Charles Barkley played for Auburn in that game. One of my many part-time jobs in college was as a bartender and waitress for the Country Club of Virginia. Race was also very important and equally unhealthy but, in a manner, exceedingly different from Philadelphia.

In the 70s, Philadelphia saw protests and journalists speaking out about race inequality and police corruption. Richmond in the 80s was a walk back in time. It was sleepy and asleep. There was no hope for equality given the deep, ingrained institutional bias against black people. The same Virginia Governor Northam who wants to pull down Robert E. Lee, admitted then denied being photographed in blackface in a Medical School yearbook photo from the 1980s.

White privilege is real. Unwinding it in America will take a great deal of dialogue and education. We cannot forget intersectionality. For every Person of Color who is disabled, a woman, or trans or any marginalized identity – they are experiencing layers of bias and overlapping discrimination. 

Both the City of Philadelphia (City of Brotherly Love) and the State of Virginia (Virginia is for Lovers) have played crucial roles at important points in American history – Founding Fathers (and Mothers), American Revolution, Civil War. I do not see them as leaders right now but they might be bell-weathers for concrete change.