Portland High School’s Thomas Jefferson Statue Toppled Amid Protests
Written by SOURCE on June 15, 2020
Today in Oh Hell Yeah, we have word that a statue of Thomas Jefferson has been toppled amid protests in Portland.
The statue, which marks merely the latest example of unworthy monuments being removed via DIY methods by the general public, was toppled from its location of the steps of Jefferson High School on Sunday after the protest largely moved toward the Albert Park area. As a regional CBS News affiliate pointed out in their report on the Thomas Jefferson statue-toppling, the move was preceded by the spray paint-assisted addition of the descriptor “slave owner” to its base.
The Jefferson piece marks the third statue of similar ludicrousness to be removed in the state over the weekend. Over at the University of Oregon on Saturday night, the Pioneer Man and Pioneer Woman statues were also taken down.
Jefferson, of course, did indeed own slaves and—despite calling for equality in the Declaration of Independence—is also known for writing in his 1785 book Notes on the State of Virginia that he believed Black people to have “a very strong and disagreeable odor” and a lack of artistic ability.
And that’s only a portion of the U.S. presidency’s extended history of racism-promoting tendencies, a pattern that quite obviously continues to this day with the ongoing fuckery of the Trump administration.
