A new statue in Times Square is making people not only stop and stare, but also reflect.
That's true, actually. I have been reflecting on what the hell went wrong.
You may remember in 2020 when rioters kept knocking over statues.
While they may claim to have been knocking down the offensive ones, even Viking explorer Thorfinn found himself toppled over.
What did Thorfinn do wrong? He starred in one of the best anime series ever and still wasn't spared.
The left eventually stopped taking out statues with their minions and instead removed them in official capacities.
The statue at the museum's entrance will be removed after years of criticism that it symbolizes colonialism and racial discrimination.
A statue of Robert E. Lee was even melted in a humiliation ritual meant to demoralize.
Soon they began to put up new statues, like this MLK giant turd, which was actually meant to show a hug between MLK and the wife he cheated on.
Then, we got several statues of the patron saint of Fentanyl, George Floyd.
As if we weren't in Clown World Hell already, Afrocomb statues were trotted out.
It's called All Power to the People.
The tines of the pick are driven into the surface of the plaza with a clenched fist
at the other end.
So I guess that's generally how we got here.
I appreciate the chance to reflect.
It's instantly stood out. It's powerful.
It's so tall and big.
And big. Look at that face. She knows what she was saying.
The piece is part of a series called Grounded in the Stars,
which Jean Cooney, director of Times Square Arts says,
confronts preconceived notions of identity and representation.
That's a bunch of words to say. It's woke garbage.
Me being a plus-sized black woman, I was kind of looking at it.
I was like, oh, I wonder what me as a small child would have thought
looking at something like that. Representation.
It's a DEI statue.
The sculptor says she's a fictional character who's meant to contrast the statues of white
men in Times Square, like Father Duffy, a World War I hero who actually accomplished something.
The artist calls this fake lady a modern day David.
If you work hard, you can be overweight and anonymous.
They don't like real statues because it reminds them
of our society's merit-based system.
They want a society based on equity
where achievement isn't celebrated.
Equal outcomes are.
So they celebrate mediocrity instead of triumph.
Our nation has hundreds of statues
honoring black Americans as we should.
Harriet Tubman, Duke Ellington.
Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, we could go on and on and on.
But they've built a statue in Times Square, they could have done it for Michelle Obama
or Kamala Harris or Oprah Winfrey.
Usually you have to earn a statue.