THREAD: Public statues are often targets in a crisis, much like museums-but for other reasons

This is a statue of a monarch who was beheaded for treason & overthrown in a revolution

It is unsurprising that a statue of such a figure becomes a target during an evolving revolution https://twitter.com/ericcrawford/status/1266206301270544386

The removal of public representations of leaders and figures who stood for opposition of those rebelling has been symbolic for the dismantling of the systems they represent

It’s happened for hundreds of years, becoming a cultural history in its own right https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/world/controversial-statues-monuments-destroyed.html

During the American Revolution, colonists removed a statue of King George III of England

@krystaldcosta writes that it “was both an act of defiance and an act of solidarity; they were looking forward to the future that would be crafted on American soil”

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/the-history-behind-the-king-george-iii-statue-meme/

During the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 protestors toppled a statue of Joseph Stalin as protestors revolted against Soviet-imposed policies

https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/collection/9/1956-polish-and-hungarian-crises/3

It’s not just statues—portraits, posters, & other representations of leaders who have engaged in oppression are symbolically destroyed or vandalized during rebellion

Portraits of Hitler were defaced by Parisians after German surrender in WWII @jaceyfortin https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/world/controversial-statues-monuments-destroyed.html

In 1991 activists toppled a statue of the KGB‘s Felix Dzerzhinsky, known as “Iron Felix”

The statue stood in Moscow’s Lubyanka Square next to the KFB headquarters

https://apnews.com/863f51d5087d19bee14a280626730385

Toppling of statues has also been used as a manipulative tool in conflicts and uprisings

The famous images of the toppling of Saddam‘s statue after the US invasion of Iraq were later revealed as staged
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89489923

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-toppling-saddam-statue-firdos-square-baghdad

In 2011 as the Arab Spring swept the Middle East & North Africa, revolutionaries across the region tore down images of their leaders or statues of oppression as they protested to overthrow regimes

Protestors in this image remove posters of Egypt’s Mubarak https://www.npr.org/2011/12/17/143897126/the-arab-spring-a-year-of-revolution

As the Syrian civil war escalated in 2013, rebels in Raqqa toppled a statue of president Bashar Al Assad’s father Hafez, who was known as “the butcher”

Bashar was and still is following in his father’s footsteps, slaughtering his people.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/04/syrian-rebels-statue-assad-father

Bashar Al Assad re-erected a statue of his father in 2019 after the regime took control of Daraa, the birthplace of the 2011 Syrian Revolution

It illustrates how these statues represent both historic & current oppression

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/06/new-assad-statues-syria-regime-stay/590965/

In 2015, South Africans rebelled against more than a century of colonial rule and the apartheid system that oppressed them as they vandalized & targeted apartheid-era statues

The country would not be the last to confront these symbols of its racist past

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/10/vandalism-of-apartheid-era-statues-sparks-fevered-debate-in-south-africa

In 2017 protests grew as states across the US reckoned with their past of slavery memorialized in statues that revere leaders representing racism and slavery

The tensions over these statues led to a deadly white supremacist rally later that year

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1AV0XE

Statue of Edward Carmack-a racist Tennessee lawmaker in the early 1900s - he frequently wrote editorials criticizing civil rights journalist Ida B Wells

As the revolution in America grows, more statues of oppression will fall

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/tennessee/articles/2020-05-30/nashville-protesters-topple-statue-of-racist-politician

https://twitter.com/andrewspotts/status/1267267697617879043?s=21 https://twitter.com/andrewspotts/status/1267267697617879043

Here, leadership steps in to dismantle the symbols of oppression.

This will be interesting to watch. Part of the removal of the statues and images seen above is the symbolic gesture of “toppling” or “tearing down” oppression as part of a revolution https://twitter.com/mspackyetti/status/1267344707996323840?s=21 https://twitter.com/mspackyetti/status/1267344707996323840