Richmond’s Slavery Monument: a Black Man with Dreds & Hoodie

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Artist Kehinde Wiley describes the historical Confederate statues in the middle of Richmond as “designed to terrorize and menace.”

One statue depicts cavalry commander Gen. J.E.B. Stuart sitting upon a muscular horse, striking a heroic pose. That was the inspiration for Wiley’s new statue of a black man with dreads straddling a horse in a similar pose.

Kehinde Wiley’s “Rumors of War” statue of a black man on horseback is unveiled at the Virginia Museum of fine arts near Confederate monuments in Richmond, Virginia. U.S.A. December 11, 2019.
The NPR Story

A similar bronze sculpture has been installed about a mile from Jeb Stuart. It portrays a black man with dreads, wearing a hoodie and Nike sneakers (Nike uses Chinese slave labor – ironic).

The statue is called Rumors of War. It was built by Wiley, widely known for painting the official portrait of President Barack Obama.

After spending several weeks on display in Times Square, the three-story-tall statue was officially unveiled Tuesday at its permanent home. It sits in front of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

“It is monumental and not just a figure of speech. It is truly monumental, in terms of its ability to be a seismic shift in how we perceive and how we understand ourselves as people living here,” Valerie Cassel Oliver, the museum’s curator of modern and contemporary art, told NPR.

The museum wrote that the new sculpture “commemorates African American youth lost to the social and political battles being waged throughout our nation.”

Julian Hayter, a historian and associate professor at the University of Richmond, sees Wiley’s installation as a way to push back against minimizing slavery and racism in the Civil War.

It’s also 1984. If they control the past, they can control the future. Eventually, this theme will replace all of history.


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Anonymous
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Anonymous
14 days ago

That statue looks like a gay, or transgender pseudo black man.

Frank McCarthy
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Frank McCarthy
14 days ago

Now that OL’ Hero Confederate Army General“J.E.B.” Stuart created by Frederick Moynihant has been taken away.
We are allowed to be “offended” by this nauseatingly trite absurd statue.
wholey finded by the VMOA and ~100+NYC liberal donors.(If only they spend that money and energy to secure and preserve our heritage statues). You know ones containing figures that actually made history…not some rendering of and idealized hoodrat realing back on a stolen horse as his rivals fire shots at him!

Purchased with funds provided by Virginia Sargeant Reynolds,
 Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Endowment, Pamela K. and William A. Royall, Jr., Angel and Tom Papa, 
Katherine and Steven Markel, and additional private donors.
Katherine and Steven Markel
Angel and Tom Papa
Pamela K. and William A. Royall, Jr.
Carol Ann Bischoff and Mike Regan
Joan P. Brock
Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Cabaniss, Jr.
Thomas F. Garner, Jr. and William V. Garner Families
Goode Family Foundation
Kathryn Gray and Alex Nyerges
Dr. Monroe E. Harris and Dr. Jill B. Harris
Kenneth and Lydia Johnson
Denise Keane, Leonard Mandl, and Graham Mandl
Mr. R. Keith Kissee
James W. Klaus
Elizabeth Locke and John Staelin
Michele and Chris PetersenKatherine and Steven Markel
Angel and Tom Papa

Carol Ann Bischoff and Mike Regan
Joan P. Brock
Mr. and Mrs. Robert W. Cabaniss, Jr.
Thomas F. Garner, Jr. and William V. Garner Families
Goode Family Foundation
Kathryn Gray and Alex Nyerges
Dr. Monroe E. Harris and Dr. Jill B. Harris
Kenneth and Lydia Johnson
Denise Keane, Leonard Mandl, and Graham Mandl
Mr. R. Keith Kissee
James W. Klaus
Elizabeth Locke and John Staelin
Michele and Chris Petersen
Richard S. Reynolds Foundation
Ting Xu and James (Yongjie) Xu and Xu Family

Anne Battle and Leonard S. Slater
Karen Cogar and Danny Abramson
Drs. Ronald A. and Betty Neal Crutcher and Sara Crutcher
Nicholas Doumlele
Ken Dye and Sam Seeley
Jessica and Zachary Gertz
Martha and Richard Glasser Beloved
Elizabeth and Charles Hodges
Dr. and Mrs. Chris and Barbara Howard
Eucharia Jackson and Richard Jackson, M.D
The Honorable C. N. Jenkins, Jr. and Dr. Pamela Royal
Jershon Jones
Pat and Karen Kelly
Wyckie and Bill McClure
Elizabeth S. Morgan
Mr. and Mrs. Larry I. Palmer
Jennifer and Geoff Sisk
Lynn Smith
Scott and Lilo Ukrop
Thomas and Deborah Valentine

Obama's boyfriend
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Obama's boyfriend
14 days ago

Wouldn’t it be more appropriate if he were shown hijacking a Honda on horseback?

Larry Folds
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Larry Folds
14 days ago

A piece of shit posing as art. It should be removed. It signifies nothing more than anarchy aimed at rubbing whitey’s nose into the ground.

Uradumone
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Uradumone
15 days ago

Wakanda was made up too. Sucks to have to make up holidays and heroes.