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Someone Swaps Racist Monuments With Colorful Air Dancers In Hilarious Pics And People Think It’s An Awesome Idea
In the wake of the George Floyd protests and the Black Lives Matter movement, racist monuments are being taken down one by one. A statue of Jefferson Davis was toppled in Richmond, Virginia, a monument for slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, England was dragged into the River Avon, and multiple Christopher Columbus statues around the US have fallen too.
And one guy has an idea on how to bring some liveliness to these now-vacant pedestals. Jack suggested “temporarily replacing all racist monuments with air dancers” while we wait for the new ones. Jack’s tweet got almost 500K likes and standing rounds of applause from people hailing the idea as absolutely wonderful.
You see, it’s like hitting two birds with one stone. First, it adds some color to the landscape and second, it gives the “wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man” its long-awaited moment to shine. Probably the first and, most likely, the last. Let’s see some of the “drafts” down below and hit the comments section to say what you think!
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Jack shared his idea on Twitter and people are loving it
Image credits: GayLaVie
Image credits: GayLaVie
There’s a symbolic value to a racist statue coming down. But many skeptics find themselves threatened by the act of “rewriting the past.” Charlotte Lydia Riley, a historian of contemporary Britain at the University of Southampton, in a piece for The Guardian, stated that there’s nothing to worry about. “It’s literally what we historians do.”
“Despite what Leopold von Ranke—one of the pioneers of modern historical research—said, history is not only about finding out ‘how it actually happened,’ but also about how we think about the past and our relationship to it.” Most importantly, “the past may be dead, but history is alive, and it is constructed in the present,” Charlotte concluded.
One Twitter user urged everyone to respect the tube men’s full title
Image credits: WilliamPecota
Image credits: WilliamPecota
Image credits: Konrodo
Historian James Holland agrees that pulling down the statues has nothing to do with airbrushing the past. “Pulling down statues is nothing new, however, nor is the changing of street names and even those of cities and countries.”
“It has happened time and again through history. Most of us in the West cheered when the swastikas were blown up in 1945, or when the statues of Lenin and Stalin were pulled down, or even that of Saddam Hussein,” he explained in an article for Sky News.
Another monument replacement idea came from this woman
Image credits: zenalbatross
And many people joined in to share their excitement over the tube men idea
Image credits: Spuds4Turnip
Image credits: ec_dixon
Image credits: TyHeidrich
Image credits: NEschenique
Image credits: miss_lord
Adam Hochschild, a historian and journalist, wrote for The Atlantic that “It’s a bad week to be a racist statue.” But ending racism itself in all its forms will take much more and much longer than clearing out its old relics. “But in these tumultuous last few weeks, I’m feeling more optimistic than I have for a long time that people are taking that goal seriously,” he stated.
Image credits: juanelyas
Image credits: AlexVen2zz
Image credits: shannoncoulter
Image credits: KyuCauda
Image credits: caitlincuesta
Image credits: shartron
Image credits: BEAT_TWITTAR
What do you think ?
Billie Davis 4 years ago
This may be an unpopular opinion idk. I was born in a middle eastern communist country. when the regime changed after a revolution, people wanted to wipe away everything that represented the previous kingdom and their sufferings. they destroyed lots of art, paintings, buildings, historic monuments, sculptures, and so many more things. I know this isn't the same, but no matter how angry you are, you should never go down that path. we would have no leftovers of our history if that were the case. I don't think there was ever a regime or ruler that was completely virtuous and those sculptures tell stories or represent time passed. Maybe there are better ways to show change.
Coffee 4 years ago
Thanks for this post. We're just repeating history here. The tearing down of statues never sit well with me. I'm African and I always get livid when I read about a statue that was torn down by missionaries then because they were deemed "evil". Now, our values have changed, the past is now the new evil and we're repeating history again.
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Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 4 years ago
Air dancers make me smile every time. When my youngest was about 5 we walked by one near the blood mobile and it smacked itself hard on the ground right in front of my son. Scared the c**p out of him. To this day he makes a wide circle around them when walking by. He is 11 now.
Dorothy Parker 4 years ago
I can understand that. Perhaps do gentle immersion therapy, get him a foot high one for his room. Go from there.
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Miguel Denyer 4 years ago
"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it"... by removing these statues, they are just making it easier to forget history and therefore making the "wash, rinse, repeat" cycle that much more likely. Incidentally, Cambodia, Vietnam, Communist China, and every other country which saw the violent installation of communism in the 20th century started exactly the same way... removal of statues, erasing history, killing of anyone who disagreed or were smart enough to know the truth... so we're now at the phase of removing statues and erasing history... I wonder what comes next...
Billie Davis 4 years ago
This may be an unpopular opinion idk. I was born in a middle eastern communist country. when the regime changed after a revolution, people wanted to wipe away everything that represented the previous kingdom and their sufferings. they destroyed lots of art, paintings, buildings, historic monuments, sculptures, and so many more things. I know this isn't the same, but no matter how angry you are, you should never go down that path. we would have no leftovers of our history if that were the case. I don't think there was ever a regime or ruler that was completely virtuous and those sculptures tell stories or represent time passed. Maybe there are better ways to show change.
Coffee 4 years ago
Thanks for this post. We're just repeating history here. The tearing down of statues never sit well with me. I'm African and I always get livid when I read about a statue that was torn down by missionaries then because they were deemed "evil". Now, our values have changed, the past is now the new evil and we're repeating history again.
Load More Replies... Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 4 years ago
Air dancers make me smile every time. When my youngest was about 5 we walked by one near the blood mobile and it smacked itself hard on the ground right in front of my son. Scared the c**p out of him. To this day he makes a wide circle around them when walking by. He is 11 now.
Dorothy Parker 4 years ago
I can understand that. Perhaps do gentle immersion therapy, get him a foot high one for his room. Go from there.
Load More Replies... Miguel Denyer 4 years ago
"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it"... by removing these statues, they are just making it easier to forget history and therefore making the "wash, rinse, repeat" cycle that much more likely. Incidentally, Cambodia, Vietnam, Communist China, and every other country which saw the violent installation of communism in the 20th century started exactly the same way... removal of statues, erasing history, killing of anyone who disagreed or were smart enough to know the truth... so we're now at the phase of removing statues and erasing history... I wonder what comes next...
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