Tea at Trianon: A Racist Legacy?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, September 6, 2020

A Racist Legacy?

From WTOP News:

The District of Columbia Facilities and Commemorative Expressions (DCFACES) group singled out over 150 landmarks having the names of “persons of concern.” Criteria that “disqualify an honor” are if the namesake figure: participated in slavery; authored or proposed policies that suppressed people of color and women; was part of a white supremacist organization; or violated D.C.’s human rights laws.

From there, the group made recommendations on some of the landmarks, and whether they should be renamed, removed or contextualized.

Forty-nine landmarks that were singled out for renaming are currently the namesakes of such figures as Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Christopher Columbus and Francis Scott Key.

Also singled out were eight landmarks on federal land. Unlike landmarks on District land, any changes to these federal landmarks would require additional support. The working group suggests that the mayor — as a member of the National Capitol Memorial Advisory Commission — recommend that federal officials “remove, relocate, or contextualize” the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial and six others. (Read more.)