Black Partridge Monument - 18th and Calumet

FreeRadical said:

This is a very revealing statement. It pretty much lays bare the logic of an authoritarian conformist.

You say there is *bad* history, as well as a *wrong* way to think about it. Is there *good* history, and a *right* way to think about it, too?

You want the art taken off the street and put in a gallery away from public view. Do you feel the same way about other forms of propaganda in public view?

I also find it interesting that you do not actually need to see a piece of art in order to form an opinion of it. Apparently, the lens you view the world through dispenses you from the formality of drawing your own conclusions.

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There's a lot more nuance than you are willing to accept here. I would bet there are some forms of public art you would oppose on the same grounds. Should we also erect a statue of Stalin kissing a baby's head? It would be an accurate depiction of something that happened, after all.

I'm using the term "bad history" in no more a value-laden way than somebody would say craniology is "bad science." History isn't a science, but it does rely on theoretical frameworks and evidence to support them. "Bad history" is history that makes an argument about the past but has no evidence to support it. The worst history is history that distorts the evidence to make a political statement.

I have enough information about the statue to form an opinion. I know that it portrays one Native American protecting a white woman from another wielding a tomahawk, while a third kills a man lying prostrate. And I know that the statue is intended to be a monument to the woman's protector, Black Partridge. Listen, it doesn't take a whole lot of information to put together the statement that's being made by that work. The statement is obvious: Indians massacred a lot of white people here, but some of them were good guys because they fought on our side.