"Silent Sam, 2018,” 2020, acrylic on canvas, 24" x 30"
Artist Statement: One argument towards keeping confederate statues up is that we will forget history without them – firstly, when was the last time someone looked at a statue to learn important historical information and then retained that information? Secondly, the history told by these statues is a rewritten one, a history that has been written by the losers. Confederate statues, particularly Silent Sam (the confederate statute that once resided at the entrance of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), were created as emblems of white supremacy and their presence has been normalized by white-washed history.
I promise, taking down Silent Sam did not make any UNC-CH student forget the history of enslavement and violence against Black people. Taking down more Confederate statues will not make Americans forget history. Removal acknowledges the post-Civil War efforts to rewrite history by claiming the war was about states’ rights instead of the TRUTH that it was about enslavement. Don’t worry, even with statues removed and buildings renamed, it is not that easy to make us forget or ignore the centuries of horrors perpetrated against Black people.