U. North Dakota Prof Says Monuments to American Pioneers ‘Reinforce White Supremacy’
“A few of the statues have been taken down, but many more exist, she said.”
These people are so tiresome. I’m so sick of hearing the left smear American history.
The College Fix reports:
Professor says monuments to American pioneers ‘reinforce white supremacy’
A University of North Dakota history professor who studies the American West believes monuments depicting the pioneers “reinforce white supremacy.”
In an interview this week with KJZZ Phoenix, Cynthia Prescott (pictured) discussed her research on pioneer monuments, including a book that argues the artwork promotes “white cultural superiority” and “gender stereotypes.”
Much like with Confederate monuments, the professor said America should re-examine artwork honoring American settlers.
“A lot of people have talked about Confederate monuments in particular, as being monuments that were put up in the late 19th, early 20th centuries for the purpose of enshrining a racial hierarchy. And through my work, I argue that Western pioneer monuments were doing very similar cultural work,” she told KJZZ.
Prescott, who chairs the History and American Indian Studies Department, said the purpose of pioneer monuments was “to reinforce white supremacy over peoples of color.”
“And they, in particular, were addressing so-called white civilization in contrast to native ‘savagery’, and seeing whites as being superior to the indigenous peoples they were displacing in the American West,” she said.
A few of the statues have been taken down, but many more exist, she said.
“So for example, there was one in San Francisco that depicted a Spanish missionary towering over a seated Native man who seems to be in a very submissive position. And that image was very problematic to a number of people, and the city chose to remove that portion of that monument in 2018,” she said.
In some cases, however, she said the problems with such monuments may be subtle and their purpose must be read “carefully” in order to see the “cultural biases coming through.”
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“she said the problems with such monuments may be subtle and their purpose must be read “carefully” in order to see the “cultural biases coming through.”
But art is to be interpreted by the viewer, not by some “cultural superiority” elitist attempting to enshrine a self-serving cultural hierarchy.
And I like ’em.
“She”. That may not tell me everything but it tells me enough.
There’s only one response to these liberal crybullies and their idiotic attempts at thinking and that is…
So?
Or: no.
A competent historian and educator would see the monuments as an opportunity to teach and explore history. This woman is neither. She is obviously a political operative pursing an agenda other than education.
European civilization, that the pioneers brought with them, was superior to the savagery it displaced. So if that’s what she sees in the statutes she’s 100% correct, and that’s precisely why they should remain.
The same is true for the Spanish missionaries on the West coast. While the values the brought were not an unmixed blessing for the Indians, overall they were certainly a blessing, and certainly superior to the cultures that they displaced.
Maybe if she learned from those statues, she wouldn’t be such an insufferable scold and ignoramus.