OT: Schenley Plaza

[HOF Coach]

 

[HailtoPitt]

They are removing the Stephen Foster statue (or already removed?) and putting up a to be determined statue of an African American woman. They should try to put a Pitt alum statue there, but knowing the City they will find a Penn State grad.

 

[IRoar4Pitt]

Gene Kelly

 

[upj87]

They are removing the Stephen Foster statue (or already removed?) and putting up a to be determined statue of an African American woman. They should try to put a Pitt alum statue there, but knowing the City they will find a Penn State grad.

They are removing the Stephen Foster statue...why?

 

[CrazyPaco]

They are removing the Stephen Foster statue...why?

There are actually two Pitt alumnae in the running. You can vote at: http://www.pittsburghpa.gov/mayor/survey/index.html

Helen Faison. 3 degrees from Pitt, BOT member, Chatham College professor. 1st black principal of a Pittsburgh public school.

Jean Hamilton Walls, a physicist, was the first black women to graduate from Pitt with a bachelors and also the first to earn a PhD from Pitt.

Vote early and often.

And I believe the existing Foster statue should go across the street, contextualized, and be integrated into the Stephen Foster Memorial.

 

[pittiswhereiamfrom2]

There are actually two Pitt alumnae in the running. You can vote at: http://www.pittsburghpa.gov/mayor/survey/index.html

Helen Faison. 3 degrees from Pitt, BOT member, Chatham College professor. 1st black principal of a Pittsburgh public school.

Jean Hamilton Walls, a physicist, was the first black women to graduate from Pitt with a bachelors and also the first to earn a PhD from Pitt.

Vote early and often.

And I believe the existing Foster statue should go across the street, contextualized, and be integrated into the Stephen Foster Memorial.

When did Jean Hamilton Walls graduate from Pitt?

 

[CrazyPaco]

When did Jean Hamilton Walls graduate from Pitt?

Enrolled in 1906.

BS 1910, PhD 1938

1911 Owl yearbook photo (1910 photo).

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

They are removing the Stephen Foster statue...why?

It's a PC action. Instead of explaining the past (both the good and the bad) as a lesson from history they are attempting to bury it. It is an intellectually very dangerous thing to do but it is thoroughly 2017, sadly.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

It's a PC action. Instead of explaining the past (both the good and the bad) as a lesson from history they are attempting to bury it. It is an intellectually very dangerous thing to do but it is thoroughly 2017, sadly.

Do you think Shoeless black man with a banjo at the feet of a white man in a public statue forum is the appropriate method to teach history lessons?

 

[upj87]

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Do you think Shoeless black man with a banjo at the feet of a white man in a public statue forum is the appropriate method to teach history lessons?

you mean a slave who enjoyed the man's music and represented all the slaves who found a little bit of joy in their awfully painful lives though it? yes, I do. But it does make you think how horrible the racist the 1988 or 1998 or 2008 Oakland resident were for putting up with this were. I thought art was a medium that could not be viewed the same way by all....at least that is what the art nerds tell me when the Piiss Christ is on display.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

you mean a slave who enjoyed the man's music and represented all the slaves who found a little bit of joy in their awfully painful lives though it? yes, I do. But it does make you think how horrible the racist the 1988 or 1998 or 2008 Oakland resident were for putting up with this were. I thought art was a medium that could not be viewed the same way by all....at least that is what the art nerds tell me when the Piiss Christ is on display.

Hey
I didn’t even know the statue existed-
And my hunch is you likewise wouldn’t have noticed it was removed if not a discussion point.

 

[DC_Area_Panther]

It's a PC action. Instead of explaining the past (both the good and the bad) as a lesson from history they are attempting to bury it. It is an intellectually very dangerous thing to do but it is thoroughly 2017, sadly.

I am with Crazy Paco on this one. Move the statue over to the Foster memorial and add a message board explaining how it is depicts another time in history. You must view the past as it was including the good, the bad and the ugly or else you are being intellectually dishonest. We need to continue to learn from the past and not bury it because it brings forth uncomfortable feelings.

 

[Panther Holla]

If you sanitize the past to pacify the present, any teaching moment is lost.The trail of history is marked with blood. In the US, in Mexico, in Canada, throughout central and South America and around the world. At any point, somebody was beating the hell out of somebody else. Peoples were conquered or subjugated or wiped off the earth. This isn't an intrinsically American phenomenon. To acknowledge slavery or racism is to expose them to Truth.

Sometimes you have to stop and learn. So the sins of the past don't happen again.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

If you sanitize the past to pacify the present, any teaching moment is lost.The trail of history is marked with blood. In the US, in Mexico, in Canada, throughout central and South America and around the world. At any point, somebody was beating the hell out of somebody else. Peoples were conquered or subjugated or wiped off the earth. This isn't an intrinsically American phenomenon. To acknowledge slavery or racism is to expose them to Truth.

Sometimes you have to stop and learn. So the sins of the past don't happen again.

And statues don’t teach from the past and their removal doesn’t change the past or an opportunity for a lesson

 

[HailtoPitt]

They have made a decision on the statue. We are going to honor this guy: