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King statue controversy

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There's a fight right now over a statue to be dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. Some say the image is too confrontational.
AlexKoppelman

4 responses // King statue controversy

  • There's another part of this controversy: hiring a Chinese artist to make the sculpture of an African-American icon. For some, the duty should have fallen to a black American artist, of which there are many, and to others the statue of King actually looks like a Chinese version of him. While I'm not sure how I feel about either of these arguments, I think the real struggle is whether our image of King's legacy is a fixed star of our past or one towards which we still need to struggle.
    BigME413
  • The statue presents King as POWERFUL and people don't like that. People like to see the passive King, the one that makes us feel more comfortable. BIGME, in response to "I think the real struggle is whether our image of King's legacy is a fixed star of our past or one towards which we still need to struggle": I heard Tavis Smiley say something like, King's intention was to be a ripple in the waves of the ocean, meaning that the struggle is intended to continue and that its always in the process. Thats why its called a "movement", because the movement continues as long as there is injustice. People fought for social justice before King, and continue to fight for social justice. People in the struggle today understand King's Truth and intentions, and that the movement has never become stagnant, even if his legacy or image in society presents him as a "fixed star of our past." Personally, I would like to see alot more POWERFUL presentations of King because thats exactly what he was.
    laprincesa81
  • The problem I have with this statue is that it is not powerful - King was a powerful man. He does appear static in this rendition - he should be depicted as a dynamic powerful man. He appears closed and non-engaged in the rendition. I agree it resembles some of the old line soviet "art" and some other statues I have seen of 18th or 19th century figures which seem more like "death masks" than life coming out of the stone. I say scrap it an get another artist - too bad Michelangelo is not available.
    egr
    • egr
    • 3 months ago
  • Thank you for talking about the warped perceptions of Dr. King! Not many people are exposed to that very pertinent truth.
    radiovolume

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