FINISH THE JOB!
Remove ALL Symbols to White Supremacy
and Abolish the Police!
The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, the assault of Iyanna Dior, and the disproportionate deaths of Black people due to Covid-19 in the United States have highlighted the ways that Black lives have always been under attack in this country. In response, the masses have risen up around the world to decry both symbols and systems of white supremacist capitalist oppression.
Working class people have taken the fight for justice into their own hands by occupying streets and in some cases literally removing the symbols of their own oppression. White supremacist monuments have been removed in at least 7 cities in the US as well as in Bristol, UK and Port of France Martinique with new removals or plans for them almost daily. In the international cases not only have the people taken it upon themselves to remove these vile statues, but they have not limited their definition of white supremacist statues to merely those that reflect the Confederacy, but rather, those that reflect, venerate or perpetuate genocide, enslavement or racism in any context.
Here in New Orleans, the City Council and mayor, after three years of silence on the issue, have asked the city to be satisfied with a mere name change of one street. One street! After removing four monuments to white supremacy in 2017, New Orleans should be on the frontlines of the movement to remove ALL symbols to white supremacy. In a city marked by dozens of street names commemorating white supremacists, not to mention public spaces, and at least 13 remaining statues to white supremacy, it only makes sense to address this issue once and for all. With the overwhelming amount of racist symbolism in this city, not to mention the systemic racism to match, the city government should be ashamed of itself for tossing its citizens measly crumbs as penance for its consistent injustice.
In this moment of global reconciliation with age old truths around systemic racism, Take Em Down NOLA demands that the city government finally begin the real work of reckoning with the WHOLE truth of white supremacy in New Orleans. They can start with the immediate removal of ALL symbols to white supremacy, including those that represent figures both before and after the Civil War. And they can move further by taking steps towards the abolition of the NOPD by DEFUNDING them (as they currently expropriate some two-thirds of taxpayers’ money) and PROACTIVELY reallocating those funds to children and families and the development of jobs that pay a LIVING wage. Minimum wage has never been sufficient, and it certainly isn’t now.
It is also important to note that:
While Richmond, Virginia has recently committed to removing a statue of Robert E. Lee, its biggest monument to white supremacy, and is planning to remove 5 other racist monuments shortly thereafter, New Orleans still allows its largest remaining monument to the slaver and genocidal warmonger Andrew Jackson to stand shamelessly in its most prominent square in the city. It and at least 12 other racist statues have only been vaguely whispered about being removed with no definite plans. The Council continues their thumb twiddling even in in the midst of a moment of global upheaval against racism where action is being taken all over the world. We say ACT NOW by enacting our ordinance demanding the immediate removal of ALL racist symbols remaining in the city!
While the District of Columbia is boldly rejecting the occupant of the White House by renaming the very street that the White House is on “Black Lives Matter Plaza” and painting those words in huge yellow letters on a street that was once the site of police terror, New Orleans has not even contended with names like Claiborne Ave. or Carrolton St. or Lee Circle even though the Lee statue was removed three years ago.
While the city of Los Angeles has begun the process of defunding the police with a $150 million budget cut, New Orleans is silent as it is police force lies about tear gassing protestors.
While the city council of Minneapolis has pledged to abolish the city’s police department altogether and replace it with a new system of public safety that should be led and monitored by the people for the people, the city of New Orleans remains silent.
The mass uprising against racism in the U.S. right now is not only a call to protest oppression, but also to invest in Black lives. While shifts are happening all around us, the city of New Orleans wants us to be satisfied with crumbs. We are no longer demanding a seat at the table. We are coming for the whole table because we built it and we want it back!
Although we fight for ALL symbols to white supremacy to be removed from the landscape of New Orleans, we do so as a necessary step in the direction of racial and economic justice. Just as we need the symbols of oppression to be removed in the form of street names and monuments, we simultaneously need the system to change by radically improving the material conditions of everyday life for Black children and families.