Colonization wants the past and the future. It wants to tell only stories of its glory and indoctrinate future generations into it so it can continue to rule. https://twitter.com/msdanifernandez/status/1274911498129641472

There’s a lot that’s important in this conversation around statues and history - I don’t think it’s nearly the biggest thing but it touches on representation in media/pop culture too.

Like, US culture loves to lift up individuals as icons. It reinforces the cultural idea of, well, individualism - if this person rose to “greatness,” all on their own, then (in this logic) we can too and it says something about us when we don’t.

In media/pop culture, we see this reflected in characters and figures who are meant to represent huge groups. America Chavez has to be THE Latinx superhero, Lin-Manuel has to be THE Latinx voice in musicals - and we the consumers are expected to accept these tokens as icons.

It’s poisonous. It reduces all of Latinidad to these singular figures. It erases all the other collaborators and supporters. It makes it harder for future Latinx creators to find their voice because it’s imposing to see only iconic figures as models for success.

Uhh... no eloquent way to close this thread so TLDR - tear down the statues and tear down the culture of idolizing individuals too.