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OrangeJuiceAlibi t1_j959djc wrote

I'm honestly surprised it happened that early.

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epochpenors t1_j95uugg wrote

Same! When I saw the year I assumed they were removed for painting our settlers in a negative light, I was surprised to see the 1939 declaration about how badly we fucked over and stole from the natives too.

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mojomonkeyfish t1_j96jd0r wrote

When people say "that's just how it was back then" it's kinda bullshit. It was, then, like it is now: fascists forced racist iconography and ideology onto our culture in order to secure their social standing. People thought it was bullshit to put up a lot of statues. But, it takes ten times the effort to get something taken down as it does to put it up.

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spasers t1_j95vtpy wrote

Who woulda thunk that people in the 50s were "woke". I'm going to go out on a limb and say that a lot of "woke" people at the time got called communists. Sounds familiar to modern tactics doesn't it.

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hillo538 OP t1_j96rrc3 wrote

During the red scare they even banned the naacp on the pretext of anti communism

You’re 100% correct

Edit: also in regards to the indigenous movement, after ww2 (which had changed the economic and political reality for indigenous peoples in America) and at the start of the Cold war and red scare, America would propagandize the idea that indigenous movements were communist, and highlighted their shared policies between indigenous activists and communist ones.

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HPmoni t1_j9bp49m wrote

How did "they" ban the NAACP?

Communists were banned. Because USSR.

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hillo538 OP t1_j9bpjy3 wrote

“although the U.S. government used legislation such as the Communist Control Act to harass Communist Party members. More ominously, the government also used such acts to investigate and harass numerous other organizations that were deemed to have communist “leanings.” These included the American Civil Liberties Union, labor unions, and the NAACP. “

Edit: during the red scare a us senator asked without irony if an Ancient Greek playwright was a member of the communist party, you’re assuming the red scare was rational

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skonevt t1_j978pvd wrote

Statues: Columbus and Crockett

They are called "Discovery" and "Rescue." It would seem that Crockett is not "arresting an indigenous man in front of his family," but rather rescuing a white woman and her baby from an indigenous person who has been cast as the murderous heathen. Seems to me even worse -- not just mastering the First People but teaching a fear of them.

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drygnfyre t1_j97gasa wrote

"But, but, but... Only today's cancel culture removes statues deemed offensive!"

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huhzonked t1_j97vrzh wrote

I’m not one to normally say that we should destroy pieces from the past, because I think they’re teaching moments and ways to better our future.

But after seeing closeups of The Discovery of America, I would be waiting in line to smash it with a steel head hammer.

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Sdog1981 t1_j98ri20 wrote

Even in 1939 they knew it was in poor taste

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