| NAACP upset over MLK's statue (12/07) | | Print | |
| Written by Avi Baskin | |
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Last month, the California NAACP joined the nationwide protest against the choice of a Chinese artist sculpting a tribute to Martin Luther King in the national mall. The Martin Luther King Memorial Project chose Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin to complete the granite sculpture.
In response, the NAACP issued a statement calling the use of a Chinese sculptor an attempt to outsource “the production of the monument to Dr. King to the People’s Republic of China, the country with the worst record of human rights violations and civil rights abuses in the world.” The NAACP feels that it is more appropriate that the sculpture to be completed by an African-American artist. Artist Gilbert Young, who created a site (www.kingisours.com) protesting Yixin’s contract also criticizes the Memorial Project’s decision. Like the NAACP, Young complains that America is unrightfully outsourcing the production of the project. “Among those pretending to be in charge are obviously too many who cannot see the irony of this decision,” Young states in a co-written essay online. However, it is not the memorial project but the NAACP and protestors like Young who fail to see the irony of their protest. King’s altruistic, life-consuming goal was to ensure that people be judged not by the color of their skin but by their character. The 12 members of the memorial foundation committee — 10 of whom are black — have seen past the color of Yixin’s skin and have judged him on his character as a capable and respected artist. These protestors need to reread King’s words during his “I Have a Dream” speech: “Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children,” he said. To demand the project be halted over an issue of skin color or nationality would go against the message King died fighting for. The NAACP does not want a man “renowned for his many sculptures and busts glorifying Mao Zedong, murderer of 70 million innocent Chinese, which is in direct opposition to Dr. King’s philosophy and to the ideal of positive social change throughout the world,” to carve the statue. Yet it is naïve to think that all artists worship their creations. Some need to pay the bills. The protestors also claim that a Chinese citizen can’t understand the civil rights struggles that American blacks have gone through. Have they forgotten the Cultural Revolution? Tiananmen Square? People in China have suffered civil rights abuses for years. America isn’t the only nation that can empathize with civil rights struggles. It is not the artist’s name at the base of the sculpture that matters but what the monument represents. Take the Statue of Liberty for example. Lady Liberty symbolizes the values of freedom and independence that America has given its citizens. Not many remember it was a gift from the French. In 10 years, people will visit the statue of King and remember not who carved it, but the brilliant ideas that King stood for. |
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to listen.
