George Washington High School in San Francisco, California, plans to remove an “offensive” mural of George Washington. At a school board meeting this week, no board members spoke in defense of the historical art, which one speaker claims causes “visual offense.”
According to a local news report, George Washington High School in San Francisco plans to erase a 13-panel mural from 1936 that depicts George Washington. Many critics of the mural have condemned its depictions of slaves and Native Americans. Now, the school is on the verge of removing the mural altogether.
Breitbart News originally reported on the push to remove the mural in May, when alumni backed the calls for removal. Although many members in the local community, including students, have argued in favor of keeping the mural, others still insist that it be taken down. At a meeting that was held on June 18, not even one school board member argued that the mural should stay up.
“Why do we have to explain the pain caused by visual offense that we see in that building that is supposed to be an institution of learning,” one local said.
Others, still, are pushing back against calls to paint over the historical art piece. “We should be teaching about the mural and what it means. I’m half native American. I have no problem with the mural. It depicts what happened,” another local added.
Joel Britton, the Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor, surprisingly argued in favor of keeping the mural. “Destroying or covering it would be an act of censorship and a blow to freedom of expression that would set a precedent for further such actions,” Britton said. “Censorship creates precedents that will always come down hardest on the working class, including African American, Latinos, Native American, and Asian American working people.”
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