Reply to Eleanor Holmes Norton announces she wants Lincoln "Emancipation" statue removed from Lincoln Park

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a black woman I just cannot feel good about removing one of the rare memorials paid for by those who were enslaved.  They did not feel that the symbolism -- showing vulnerability that today elicits such deep discomfort -- reduced their dignity.  If the imagery did not offend them, if they did not mind having their gratitude depicted artistically in this fashion, why must we?  The fact that black people paid for it makes all the difference to me.  I wonder sometimes if there is difficulty in dealing with the fact that we have needed the help of the privileged to effect social change.  Lincoln expressed support for sending all blacks back to Africa if in so doing the Union could be saved.  AND YET he was critical in the emancipation of the enslaved.  The duality disturbs all of us but that is the nature of any complex person or thing or system of ideas like democracy.  Let's add another plaque that provides extensive historical context and erect a statue of a black abolitionist nearby.  There are other ways to expand and enrich the historical narrative.[/quote]

I love you. Please run for office.[/quote]

No, Lincoln supported the back to Africa campaign before he was president and after the war. He absolutely did not believe in equal rights for black people at any point in his lifetime. [/quote]

This is a perfect example of a willful, dogged deliberate misunderstanding of Lincoln. [/quote]

No, Lincoln was a closeted white man of his time who had the average racist views of his time for most white men. He was not radical. He was not a Quaker. He was not an early adopter of abolitionism. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t  a good president for the time, particularly for white Americans. [/quote]

We must apply the values and lessons of today to yesterday. Time and time again Lincoln fails the time-traveler litmus text, whereby a person living in 1860 demonstrates the norms and values of 2020! [/quote]

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