Removing Frank Rizzo mural was the right move

To the Times:

In her column on June 14, Christine Flowers denounces the removal of a mural commemorating Philadelphia’s former Mayor, Frank Rizzo. She gives authentic voice to the powerful way in which public art can represent deeply held collective identities. My research on murals in Northern Ireland compels me to take seriously

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the sensitivities involved in replacing them, and I note that this removal was executed swiftly by consensus following a long dialogue among stakeholders.

What concerns me most about Flowers’ article is her use of Orwell to gin up fear across racial lines. She charges a black-led multiracial movement with precipitating the erasure of ItalianAmericans

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without acknowledging that European Americans have perpetually erased black people throughout the United States’ history of kidnapping and enslavement.

This longstanding erasure has been accomplished through policies overseen by state officials, including Mayor Rizzo, and through declarations that all groups

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610.622.8887 are equal, opening the door to claims of parity of esteem and offense (in this case over a mural). Orwell warned us about this kind of doublespeak in “Animal Farm” when the pigs claimed supremacy and declared, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” One could hardly find a more concise historical summary of U.S. race

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When they acknowledged the suffering of their black and LGBTQ neighbors and decided to replace the Rizzo mural, the Italian Market rejected Flowers’ principle of parity of offense. Orwell would approve.

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