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17 Sep, 2019 10:50

‘When will it end?’ Twitter fumes after NYC official suggests replacing Central Park’s male statues with women

‘When will it end?’ Twitter fumes after NYC official suggests replacing Central Park’s male statues with women

A conspicuously ‘woke’ New York City official has proposed that male statues inhabiting the metropolis’s famed Central Park should be replaced with monuments honoring women. This is a great idea, nobody on Twitter said.

Hank Willis Thomas, a painter who serves on the Public Design Commission, told his fellow commission members that there are five or six male statues in the park that could “easily” be torn down and swapped with tributes to famous women, the New York Post reported.

Elaborating on his idea, Thomas singled out statues of Scottish poet Robert Burns and Christopher Columbus as candidates for reassignment surgery. He argued that there aren’t many people who would miss the Burns statue, while Columbus already had a monument in his honor just a “few hundred yards away.”

Central Park currently has 23 statues – all male – and Hank’s commission has been tasked with rectifying this problem.

Also on rt.com US school to hide, not destroy Washington mural depicting slaves and dead Native American

Thomas’ vision for a new-and-improved Central Park was rejected by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who wants to see new statues erected but opposes removing existing ones.

His bold renovation plan was similarly panned by the Twitterati, who expressed nearly unanimous disgust with the proposal.

Criticizing the city’s priorities, some social media users argued that local officials should focus on more pressing issues such as homelessness and sanitation.

Ironically, a proposal for a statue honoring pioneers of women’s rights was shelved for further debate by Thomas’ commission because it didn’t include a woman of color.

This is far from the first time that there have been calls to alter Central Park so that it would be in compliance with politically correct standards. In June, actress Jessica Chastain posted a viral video highlighting the absence of female statues in Central Park, and half-jokingly suggested that a monument to Oprah should be erected.

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