#228. Washington DC Monuments

Black people love Washington DC. It is a city that has allowed Black people the honor of having the gifted orator, Marion Barry, serve as its mayor:

"Barry's other run-ins with the law have included a federal sting operation in 1990, when he was mayor. Surveillance cameras caught him smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room.

Despite his fall from grace, he was re-elected in 1994 to a four-year term as mayor. In his latest political comeback in 2004, Barry won a seat on the D.C. Council, on which he continues to serve.

Barry was arrested in 2002 when traces of marijuana and cocaine were found in his car after he was stopped in the Buzzard Point area of Southwest D.C. No charges were filed, and Barry claimed that the drugs were planted."

Washington DC, the nation's capitol, might be losing its Black population though, as gentrification is driving Black people out:

"The city losing black residents is a continuation of a decades-long trend of black flight from the city. The black population in the city has dropped 16 percent since 1990, when 400,000 blacks lived in Washington.

Despite this loss, Washington is one of only five states where a minority is actually the majority. Approximately 68 percent of District residents are nonwhite, with blacks representing 58 percent of the total population. Although the black population in the District has steadily been declining, the white, Hispanic and Asian populations have been consistently on the rise. Also according to the census, since 1990, the number of whites living in the District has increased 2 percent from about 179,000 to 184,000."

This rapid decrease in Black population, compounded with the vexing problem of staying awake while operating a DC Metro Train, is putting Black people's future in DC in great jeopardy. Sadly, the main problem that plagues Black people, regardless of the loss of their population and the high rates of crime, are the monuments that they must look at each day that glorify Pre-Obama America.

Monuments, you might ask? What are you talking about SBPDL? We're referring to the US Capitol Building, The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial and The Jefferson Memorial, not to mention the monument to World War II.

Black people can hardly even look at the US Capitol Building anymore, for the realization that Black people in bondage helped erect the building and so few Black people have served as representatives and senators in that building is too much to take:

"In January, President-elect Barack Obama and his family will make history, becoming the first African-American first family to move into the White House -- a house with a history of slavery. In fact, the legacy of American presidents owning slaves goes all the way back to George Washington.

Twelve American presidents owned slaves and eight of them, starting with Washington, owned slaves while in office. Almost from the very start, slaves were a common sight in the executive mansion. A list of construction workers building the White House in 1795 includes five slaves - named Tom, Peter, Ben, Harry and Daniel -- all put to work as carpenters. Other slaves worked as masons in the government quarries, cutting the stone for early government buildings, including the White House and U.S. Capitol. According to records kept by the White House Historical Association, slaves often worked seven days a week -- even in the hot and humid Washington summers."

The Father of Pre-Obama America, George Washington, owned slaves. The Father of New America, Zod-Obama, merely looks upon his conquered subjects with callous apathy, for each day he is in Washington DC, he must look upon the giant obelisk that glorifies Washington:

"The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington. The monument, made of marble, granite, and sandstone, is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk in height standing 555 feet 5⅛ inches (169.294 m).There are other monumental columns (which are neither all stone nor true obelisks) which are taller. It is also the tallest structure in Washington D.C."

Yes, Washington is a dead white male, and yes, with a giant monument to him being the most noticeable landmark in DC is a bit tough to take, but this is not the main reason Black people don't like the monument.

No, the main reason is because the Washington Monument looks like the hood of a member of Ku Klux Klan. Next time you are in DC, look at the monument at night. Two windows appear lit at the top of the Washington Monument and the top of the obelisk is triangular, which gives the ominous impression of a hooded Klan-men lording over DC.

Worse though, is the Jefferson Memorial, not for what Thomas Jefferson represents and stood for, but for what is omitted from the monuments quotation:

"For example, inscribed on the marble interior of the Jefferson Memorial are the words: “Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people [the Negroes] shall be free.” Jefferson did not stop there, but went on to say, “nor is it less certain that the two races equally free, cannot live under the same government”—which rather changes the effect.

Another approach to Jefferson is to bring out all the facts and then try to repudiate him. Conor Cruise O’Brien did this in a 1996 cover story for Atlantic Monthly. After describing Jefferson’s views, he writes:

“It follows that there can be no room for a cult of Thomas Jefferson in the civil religion of an effectively multiracial America—that is, an America in which nonwhite Americans have a significant and increasing say. Once the facts are known, Jefferson is of necessity abhorrent to people who would not be in America at all if he could have had his way.” Richard Grenier agrees, likening Jefferson to Nazi Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler, and calling for the demolition of the Jefferson Memorial “stone by stone.”

Even worse than Jefferson is the Lincoln Memorial, built to honor Honest Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King delivered his famous oration "I Have a Dream" under the watchful eyes of the Lincoln, and yet the irony of this is not lost on all Black people, as this quote from a debate in the 1850s shows:

“I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races—that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

These monuments will soon be gone, destroyed to make room for the Black world that will all live in now. Black people might be leaving DC, but it is disingenuous white liberals who are moving in and these people hate the past and the sin of being white more than anyone else on the planet.

They will help remove each brick from the US Capitol, demolish the Washington Monument and its KKK Hood, bulldoze the Jefferson Memorial and build one for Sally Hemings and remove Lincoln from his throne and replace him with General Zod-Obama, for Pre-Obama America is dead forever and the memory of it must be eradicated once and for all.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes the Washington DC Monuments and the memory of the dead white males that resonate with each glance upon them. Thankfully, a monument is being built to Martin Luther King Jr., to pacify Black people until the other monuments can be replaced, for that day is not far off. And not a moment too soon in the eyes of Black people.