I couldn’t agree more! Below is my response to a friend’s FB post on this topic. It’s hard us to understand the negative feeling that these kinds of iconography can evoke when one is not the subject or has never experienced these feelings.

Once again, I get the points of advocates for and against the removal of the art installation. I was torn when the Confederate Monument debate arose. Never having lived or visited the South, I never encountered or noticed any of them. I was in of a mind to add context in the way of a plaque explaining their factual cultural significance as having little or nothing to do with honoring Confederate leaders and everything to do with Jim Crow era intimidation and propaganda. I felt I was taking the intellectual route that should be acceptable to any rational person.

Then I went South and one night while walking around alone playing a game on my phone, I came across a large, publicly-funded Blue/Green/Gray Lives Matter sign. As I struggled to discern the actual intent of the sign one thing became very clear; in these unfamiliar surroundings, I was unsure of my safety. There was a visceral and palpable sense of fear. I was then just angry that I was made to feel this way “in my own country”. When it comes down to it, regardless of nationality, I don’t feel that anyone should be made to feel this way.

The thought of communicating to children that their heritage is in any way limited to past atrocities seems misguided and unfair. I can understand celebrating the achievements of individuals and groups in art but to be honest, the “historical accuracy” argument feels to me like being mansplained how woke you are. These well-intended gestures can be easily transformed into microaggressions and I would leave it to the students to tell us how they do feel instead of us telling them how they should feel and let that guide our actions. I feel like this is what the school board has done in this case.