<div dir="ltr">Much of the discussion between me and Carl Estabrook on News from Neptune today (not yet available on youtube), was based on the efforts of "anti-racist" activists to whitewash over precious New Deal Era WPA murals in a San Francisco high school.<div><br></div><div>These efforts are being lead by "Stand Up for Racial Justice," which has a local branch led by Elizabeth Simpson, and has sponsored events at the Urbana U-U church.</div><div><br></div><div>A Counterpunch article referred to on the show can be found here:</div><div><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/23/whitewashing-american-history-the-wpa-mural-controversy-in-san-francisco/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/23/whitewashing-american-history-the-wpa-mural-controversy-in-san-francisco/</a> </div><div><br></div><div>I especially encourage you to watch the short youtube video linked to in the above piece.</div><div><br></div><div>However, I was not aware at the time of this recording that this issue has been covered extensively by the NYT.</div><div><br></div><div>Of note, this sort of repression gives someone like Bari Weiss, an arch Zionist and neocon, an opportunity to (correctly) denigrate what some think of as the "left." Such efforts, as Noam Chomsky stated in relation to antifa, is a "gift to the right."</div><div><br></div><div>Text of her article is below:</div><div><br></div><div style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(51,51,51);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-css-1vkm6nb ehdk2mb0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><h1 class="gmail-css-1qskr30 e1h9rw200" id="gmail-link-76942d04" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(18,18,18);font-size:3.56rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:3.75rem;margin-bottom:10px;margin-right:auto;margin-top:0px;max-width:none;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:660px"><span class="gmail-balancedHeadline" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline-block;font:inherit;margin:0px;max-width:552.51px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">San Francisco Will Spend $600,000 to Erase History</span></h1></div><p class="gmail-css-1ifw933 e1wiw3jv0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.5rem;font-stretch:normal;font-variant:inherit;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1.93rem;margin:0px auto 1.6rem;max-width:600px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:600px">The school board has voted to destroy public murals by a New Deal-era Communist.</p><div class="gmail-css-acwcvw epjyd6m0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px auto 1rem;max-width:600px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:600px"><div class="gmail-css-vp77d3 epjyd6m1" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:flex;font:inherit;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><div class="gmail-css-1p10dcb ey68jwv0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline-block;font:inherit;min-width:90px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><a class="gmail-css-uwwqev" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/bari-weiss" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:black;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration-line:none;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><img title="Bari Weiss" class="gmail-css-1vbou05 ey68jwv2" alt="Bari Weiss" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/07/31/multimedia/author-bari-weiss/author-bari-weiss-thumbLarge.png" style="border: medium none currentcolor; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; width: 80px;"></a></div><div class="gmail-css-1baulvz" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline-block;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><p class="gmail-css-1nuro5j e1jsehar1" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline-block;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.93rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0.02em;line-height:1.25rem;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">By <a class="gmail-css-1riqqik e1jsehar0" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/bari-weiss" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(51,51,51);display:inline;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration-line:none;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="gmail-css-1baulvz gmail-last-byline" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline-block;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration-line:underline;vertical-align:baseline">Bari Weiss</span></a></p><div class="gmail-css-qsaw8 e1wtpvyy0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><p class="gmail-css-ri4qrz e1wtpvyy1" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.81rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;letter-spacing:0.01em;line-height:1.06rem;margin:2px 0px;max-width:530px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Ms. Weiss is a writer and editor for the Opinion section.</p></div></div></div><ul class="gmail-css-1w5cs23 epjyd6m2" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:flex;font:inherit;list-style:none outside none;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><li style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;list-style:none outside none;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">June 28, 2019</li><li class="gmail-css-6n7j50" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline;font:inherit;list-style:none outside none;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-css-d8bdto" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(153,153,153);display:flex;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><ul class="gmail-css-y8aj3r" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;list-style:none outside none;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><li class="gmail-css-60hakz" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline;font:inherit;list-style:none outside none;margin:0px 16px 0px 0px;padding:10px 0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/dialog/feed?app_id=9869919170&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2019%2F06%2F28%2Fopinion%2Fsunday%2Fsan-francisco-life-of-washington-murals.html&smid=fb-share&name=San%20Francisco%20Will%20Spend%20%24600%2C000%20to%20Erase%20History&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:black;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration-line:none;vertical-align:baseline"></a></li><li class="gmail-css-60hakz" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline;font:inherit;list-style:none outside none;margin:0px 16px 0px 0px;padding:10px 0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnyti.ms%2F2LotIOB&text=San%20Francisco%20Will%20Spend%20%24600%2C000%20to%20Erase%20History" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:black;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration-line:none;vertical-align:baseline"></a></li><li class="gmail-css-60hakz" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline;font:inherit;list-style:none outside none;margin:0px 16px 0px 0px;padding:10px 0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><a href="mailto:?subject=NYTimes.com%3A%20San%20Francisco%20Will%20Spend%20%24600%2C000%20to%20Erase%20History&body=From%20The%20New%20York%20Times%3A%0A%0ASan%20Francisco%20Will%20Spend%20%24600%2C000%20to%20Erase%20History%0A%0AThe%20school%20board%20has%20voted%20to%20destroy%20public%20murals%20by%20a%20New%20Deal-era%20Communist.%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2019%2F06%2F28%2Fopinion%2Fsunday%2Fsan-francisco-life-of-washington-murals.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:black;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration-line:none;vertical-align:baseline"></a></li><li class="gmail-css-60hakz" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline;font:inherit;list-style:none outside none;margin:0px 16px 0px 0px;padding:10px 0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><div class="gmail-css-6n7j50" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><button class="gmail-css-16ogagc" style="background:none 0% 0%/auto repeat scroll padding-box border-box rgb(238,238,238);border-width:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(238,238,238);border-radius:100%;font-size:100%;height:27px;margin:0px;padding:5px;vertical-align:middle;width:27px"></button></div></li><li class="gmail-css-60hakz" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline;font:inherit;list-style:none outside none;margin:0px 16px 0px 0px;padding:10px 0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><button class="gmail-css-1h5igzw" type="button" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);border-width:medium;border-style:none;border-color:currentcolor;font-size:100%;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle"></button></li><li class="gmail-css-l72opv" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:inline;font:inherit;list-style:none outside none;margin:0px;padding:10px 0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><button class="gmail-css-1d50gvk" id="gmail-comments-speech-bubble-top" type="button" style="border-width:medium;border-style:none;border-color:currentcolor;color:rgb(102,102,102);display:inline-flex;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.75rem;height:25px;line-height:1rem;margin:0px 0px 0px 2px;min-width:24px;overflow:visible;padding:0px 0px 4px;text-transform:uppercase;vertical-align:middle"><span class="gmail-css-1pv1u79" style="background:none 0% 0%/auto repeat scroll padding-box border-box transparent;border:1px solid rgb(102,102,102);border-radius:4px;display:flex;font:inherit;margin:0px;min-height:14px;min-width:26px;padding:4px;vertical-align:baseline;width:auto"><span class="gmail-css-1dtr3u3" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:inherit;font-size:0.75rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:0.75rem;margin:auto 0px 0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">2294</span></span></button></li></ul></div></div></li></ul></div><div class="gmail-css-79elbk" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-css-z3e15g" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;opacity:0;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"></div><div class="gmail-css-1hyum5x ehw59r12" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:457.35px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:720px" width="720px" height="457.34991455078125px"><div class="gmail-css-t972an ehw59r13" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;overflow:hidden;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-css-19qg2cf ehw59r14" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:457.35px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:720px" width="720px" height="457.34991455078125px"><div style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-css-8h527k" style="background-color:rgb(247,247,245);border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><div style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:auto;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><img class="gmail-css-1j5kxti e1t57l6r0" style="border: 0px none currentcolor; display: block; font: inherit; height: 100%; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; padding: 0px; transition: opacity 300ms ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline; width: 100%;" alt="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/06/30/opinion/30Weiss/27Weiss-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp" width="720" height="457"></div></div></div><button class="gmail-css-1vkv6l7 ehw59r10" style="border-width:medium;border-style:none;border-color:currentcolor;font-size:100%;height:60px;margin:0px;opacity:0;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:60px"></button></div></div></div><div class="gmail-css-1a48zt4 ehw59r15" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;opacity:1;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-css-bsn42l" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="gmail-css-1dv1kvn" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:1px">Image</span><img class="gmail-css-11cwn6f" style="border: 0px none currentcolor; cursor: pointer; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; width: 100%;" alt="A section of the mural at George Washington High School in San Francisco, painted by the Russian-American artist Victor Arnautoff, shows a dead Native American." src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/06/30/opinion/30Weiss/27Weiss-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp" width="720" height="457"></div><span class="gmail-css-8i9d0s e13ogyst0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:0.93rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.25rem;margin:0px 7px 0px 0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">A section of the mural at George Washington High School in San Francisco, painted by the Russian-American artist Victor Arnautoff, shows a dead Native American.</span><span class="emkp2hg2 gmail-css-1nwzsjy e1z0qqy90" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(136,136,136);display:inline-block;font-size:0.81rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;letter-spacing:0.01em;line-height:1.12rem;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="gmail-css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:1px">Credit</span><span style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><span class="gmail-css-1dv1kvn" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:1px">Credit</span><span style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Jim Wilson/The New York Times</span></span></span></div></div></div><div class="gmail-css-1fanzo5 gmail-StoryBodyCompanionColumn" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:flex;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px auto 1rem;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:1200px"><div class="gmail-css-53u6y8" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin-bottom:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-top:0px;max-width:600px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:600px"><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">SAN FRANCISCO — More than $8,000. That was the amount John Ashcroft’s Justice Department spent on blue curtains to cover up the busty Spirit of Justice statue and her bare-chested male equivalent, the Majesty of Law, in the department’s Great Hall in 2002. The Victorian move against the Art Deco sculptures spurred a thousand lampoons. “A blue burqa for justice,” my colleague Maureen Dowd memorably <a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/30/opinion/a-blue-burka-for-justice.html?module=inline" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">called it</a>. In The Harvard Crimson, <a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/prudes-and-puritans-the-american-right/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">a young Pete Buttigieg wrote</a>, “It seems odd that an infant is supposed to feed on them, and a grown man is expected at some point to behold them, but for a period in between we feel the need to see to it that no child ever sees a breast.”</p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">I wonder, then, what Mr. Buttigieg, now on the presidential campaign trail, would make of the San Francisco school board’s unanimous decision on Tuesday night to spend at least $600,000 of taxpayer money not just to shroud a historic work of art but to destroy it.</p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">By now stories of progressive Puritanism (or perhaps the better word is Philistinism) are so commonplace — snowflakes seek safe space! — that it can feel tedious to track the details of the latest outrage. But this case is so absurd that it’s worth reviewing the specifics.</p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">Victor Arnautoff, the Russian immigrant who made the paintings in question, was perhaps the most important muralist in the Bay Area during the Depression. Thanks to President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, he had the opportunity to make some enduring public artworks. Among them is “City Life” in Coit Tower, in which the artist <a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/coit-tower-arnautoff-mural-san-francisco-ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">painted himself</a> standing in front of a newspaper rack conspicuously<a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.academia.edu/36122637/Ivy_Litvinov_at_Stanford" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"> missing</a> the mainstream San Francisco Chronicle and packed with publications like The Daily Worker. </p></div><div class="gmail-css-ke163a" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:25px auto 0px;max-width:1200px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-css-48vsi0" id="gmail-newsletter-module" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px auto 0px 0px;overflow:hidden;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><div class="gmail-css-1k9ek97" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-css-1hdd06o" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><h2 class="gmail-css-13v6p0e" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1.12rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.5rem;margin:0px 0px 5px;max-width:180px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Sign up for David Leonhardt's newsletter</h2><p class="gmail-css-utmy9y" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(102,102,102);font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.81rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1rem;margin:0px 0px 10px;max-width:180px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">David Leonhardt helps you make sense of the news — and offers reading suggestions from around the web — with commentary every weekday morning.  </p></div><div class="gmail-css-tjpxhb" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><div class="gmail-css-sefkcv" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:auto;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%" name="regilite" method="post"><button class="gmail-css-hjhc79" type="submit" style="background:none 0% 0%/auto repeat scroll padding-box border-box rgb(98,136,165);border-width:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(98,136,165);border-radius:4px;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-weight:700;height:35px;line-height:13px;margin:0px;max-width:180px;padding:10px;text-transform:uppercase;vertical-align:middle;width:100%">Sign Up</button><div style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-css-2ninbb" id="gmail-story-ad-1-wrapper" style="background-color:rgb(247,247,247);border-color:rgb(243,243,243) currentcolor;border-style:solid none;border-width:1px 0px;font:inherit;margin:43px auto;padding:12px 0px 30px;text-align:center;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><div class="gmail-css-l9onyx" id="gmail-story-ad-1-slug" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(204,204,204);font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.56rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;letter-spacing:0.05rem;line-height:0.56rem;margin:0px 0px 9px;padding:0px;text-transform:uppercase;vertical-align:baseline"><p style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Advertisement</p></div><div style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-ad gmail-story-ad-1-wrapper" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px;min-height:250px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div id="gmail-story-ad-1" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/29390238/nyt/opinion/sunday_4__container__" style="border:0pt none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;min-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-css-1fanzo5 gmail-StoryBodyCompanionColumn" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:flex;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px auto 1rem;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:1200px"><div class="gmail-css-53u6y8" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin-bottom:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-top:0px;max-width:600px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:600px"><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">Arnautoff, who had assisted Diego Rivera in Mexico, was a committed Communist. “‘Art for art’s sake’ or art as perfume have never appealed to me,” he said in 1935. “The artist is a critic of society.”</p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">This is why his freshly banned work, “Life of Washington,” does not show the clichéd image of our first president kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge. Instead, the 13-panel, 1,600-square-foot mural, which was painted in 1936 in the just-built George Washington High School, depicts his slaves picking cotton in the fields of Mount Vernon and a group of colonizers walking past the corpse of a Native American. </p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">“At the time, high school history classes typically ignored the incongruity that Washington and others among the nation’s founders subscribed to the declaration that ‘all men are created equal’ and yet owned other human beings as chattel,” Robert W. Cherny writes in “Victor Arnautoff and the Politics of Art.” </p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">In other words, Arnautoff’s <em class="gmail-css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">purpose </em>was to unsettle the viewer, to provoke young people into looking at American history from a different, darker perspective. Over the past months, art historians, New Deal scholars and even a group called the <a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.russian-americans.org/preserve-victor-arnautoffs-mural-in-george-washington-high-school/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Congress of Russian Americans</a> have tried to make exactly that point.</p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">“This is a radical and critical work of art,” the school’s alumni association <a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://sfrichmondreview.com/2019/03/29/george-washington-high-school-alumni-oppose-censoring-controversial-murals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">argued</a>. “There are many New Deal murals depicting the founding of our country; very few even acknowledge slavery or the Native genocide. The Arnautoff murals should be preserved for their artistic, historical and educational value. Whitewashing them will simply result in another ‘whitewash’ of the full truth about American history.” </p></div><div class="gmail-css-j64t31" id="gmail-c-col-editors-picks" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;max-width:210px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><h2 class="gmail-css-ohexsw" style="border-color:currentcolor currentcolor rgb(226,226,226);border-style:none none solid;border-width:0px 0px 1px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;letter-spacing:0.02em;line-height:14px;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px 0px 12px;vertical-align:baseline">Editors’ Picks</h2><a class="gmail-css-1sj6bre gmail-gtm-tagged" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/arts/design/hitler-looted-the-art-then-they-looted-hitler.html?fallback=0&recId=1OZBe4Dsr4bNbFSD6Ipvte1TiTo&locked=0&geoContinent=NA&geoRegion=IL&recAlloc=story&geoCountry=US&blockId=home-featured&imp_id=539119427" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:black;display:flex;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration-line:none;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-css-1rcvpgy" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:75px"><img alt="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/07/20/arts/19lootinghitler/19lootinghitler-square640-v2.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350" style="border: medium none currentcolor; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><h3 class="gmail-css-1p08cbr" style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:0px 0px medium;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:500;line-height:17px;margin:auto 0px auto 10px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Hitler Looted the Art, Then They Looted Hitler</h3></a><a class="gmail-css-1sj6bre gmail-gtm-tagged" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/magazine/alcohol-sobriety-military.html?fallback=0&recId=1OZBe4Dsr4bNbFSD6Ipvte1TiTo&locked=0&geoContinent=NA&geoRegion=IL&recAlloc=story&geoCountry=US&blockId=home-featured&imp_id=688594785" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:black;display:flex;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-decoration-line:none;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-css-1rcvpgy" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:75px"><img alt="" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/07/23/magazine/23atwar-sobriety-1/23atwar-sobriety-1-square640.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=350" style="border: medium none currentcolor; font: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><h3 class="gmail-css-1p08cbr" style="border-color:currentcolor;border-style:none;border-width:0px 0px medium;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:500;line-height:17px;margin:auto 0px auto 10px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">For Years, Alcohol Was My Only Comfort. Then It Nearly Killed Me.</h3></a><div id="gmail-pp_edpick-wrapper" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-ad gmail-pp_edpick-wrapper" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px;padding:0px;text-align:center;vertical-align:baseline"><div id="gmail-pp_edpick" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/29390238/nyt/opinion/sunday_7__container__" style="border:0pt none currentcolor;display:inline-block;font:inherit;height:auto;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-css-2ninbb" id="gmail-story-ad-2-wrapper" style="background-color:rgb(247,247,247);border-color:rgb(243,243,243) currentcolor;border-style:solid none;border-width:1px 0px;font:inherit;margin:43px auto;padding:12px 0px 30px;text-align:center;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><div class="gmail-css-l9onyx" id="gmail-story-ad-2-slug" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(204,204,204);font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.56rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;letter-spacing:0.05rem;line-height:0.56rem;margin:0px 0px 9px;padding:0px;text-transform:uppercase;vertical-align:baseline"><p style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Advertisement</p></div><div style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-ad gmail-story-ad-2-wrapper" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px;min-height:250px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div id="gmail-story-ad-2" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/29390238/nyt/opinion/sunday_5__container__" style="border:0pt none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;min-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-css-1fanzo5 gmail-StoryBodyCompanionColumn" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:flex;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px auto 1rem;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:1200px"><div class="gmail-css-53u6y8" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin-bottom:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-top:0px;max-width:600px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:600px"><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">Such <a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPpm8FUPC2c&t=3618s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">appeals to reason and history</a> failed to sway the school board. On Tuesday, it dismissed the option to pull an Ashcroft and simply cover the murals, instead voting unanimously to paint them over. </p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">One of the commissioners, Faauuga Moliga, said before the vote on Tuesday that his chief concern was that “kids are mentally and emotionally feeling safe at their schools.” Thus he wanted “the murals to be painted down.” Mark Sanchez, the school board’s vice president, later told me that simply concealing the murals wasn’t an option because it would “allow for the possibility of them being uncovered in the future.” Destroying them was worth it regardless of the cost, he argued at the hearing, saying, “This is reparations.” </p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">These and other explanations from the board’s members reflected the logic of the Reflection and Action Working Group, a committee of activists, students, artists and others put together last year by the district. Arnautoff’s work, the group concluded in February, “glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, Manifest Destiny, white supremacy, oppression, etc.” The art does not reflect “social justice,” the group said, and it “is not student-centered if it’s focused on the legacy of artists, rather than the experience of the students.”</p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">And yet many of the school’s actual students seemed to disagree. Of 49 freshmen asked to write about the murals,<a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/arts/design/george-washington-murals-ugly-history-debated.html?module=inline" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"> according to The Times</a>, only four supported their removal. John M. Strain, an English teacher, told The Times’s Carol Pogash that his students “feel bad about offending people but they almost universally don’t think the answer is to erase it.”</p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">Which makes one wonder who these bureaucrats actually seek to protect. Is it the students? Or could it also be their reputations, given that those in favor of preserving the murals are being smeared as racists?</p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">“In my entire life, no one has ever, ever accused me of being a ‘white supremacist,’” Lope Yap Jr., a filmmaker and the vice president of the alumni association, told me. But if you buy into the expansive notion of “white supremacy” put forward by Alison Collins, one of the board commissioners, that is exactly what Mr. Yap, who is Filipino, is. “One of the earmarks of white supremacy culture is valuing (white) property over (Black & Brown) ppl,” Ms. Collins <a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://twitter.com/AliMCollins/status/1142435131493249024" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">recently wrote</a> on Twitter. “I think about this when I read comments from folks arguing to ‘protect’ the ‘Life of Washington’ murals.” </p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">Mr. Sanchez, the board vice president, told me: “A grave mistake was made 80 years ago to paint a mural at a school without Native American or African-American input. For impressionable young people who attend school to have any representation that diminishes people, specifically students from communities that have already been diminished, it’s an aggressive thing. It’s hurtful and I don’t think our students need to bear that burden.”</p></div></div><div class="gmail-css-2ninbb" id="gmail-story-ad-3-wrapper" style="background-color:rgb(247,247,247);border-color:rgb(243,243,243) currentcolor;border-style:solid none;border-width:1px 0px;font:inherit;margin:43px auto;padding:12px 0px 30px;text-align:center;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><div class="gmail-css-l9onyx" id="gmail-story-ad-3-slug" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(204,204,204);font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.56rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;letter-spacing:0.05rem;line-height:0.56rem;margin:0px 0px 9px;padding:0px;text-transform:uppercase;vertical-align:baseline"><p style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Advertisement</p></div><div style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div class="gmail-ad gmail-story-ad-3-wrapper" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px;min-height:250px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div id="gmail-story-ad-3" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><div id="gmail-google_ads_iframe_/29390238/nyt/opinion/sunday_6__container__" style="border:0pt none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin:0px;min-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-css-1fanzo5 gmail-StoryBodyCompanionColumn" style="border:0px none currentcolor;display:flex;font:inherit;height:100%;margin:0px auto 1rem;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:1200px"><div class="gmail-css-53u6y8" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font:inherit;margin-bottom:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-top:0px;max-width:600px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:600px"><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">The implications of this logic are chilling. What happens when a student suggests that looking at photographs of the My Lai massacre in history class is too traumatic? Should newspapers avoid printing upsetting images that illuminate the crisis at the border, like <a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/us/father-daughter-border-drowning-picture-mexico.html?module=inline" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">the unforgettable one</a> of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, facedown, drowned in the Rio Grande? </p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">All are fair game for censorship in a worldview that insists that words and images are to be judged based on how “safe” they make people feel.</p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">“If K-12 schools start to provide top-down total protection from the emotional pain of confronting uncomfortable ideas — like what actually happened in real American history — we should not be at all surprised when these people go on to college campuses and then, into the work force, and demand the same sort of comforts: safe spaces, trigger warnings, microaggression prevention, and so on,” said Robby Soave, the author of “Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump.” He added: “That’s not on them. That’s on us.” </p><p class="gmail-css-exrw3m evys1bk0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-size:1.25rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:1.87rem;margin:0px 0px 0.93rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">The notion of erasing art has an American pedigree. Arnautoff was intimately familiar with it, having been interrogated in 1956 by the House Un-American Activities Committee for drawing a caricature of Vice President Richard Nixon. But I suspect he would have been surprised to learn that more than 60 years later, progressives in charge of educating San Francisco’s children are merrily following this un-American playbook. </p><p class="gmail-css-jwz2nf etfikam0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.37rem;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%">Bari Weiss (<a title="" class="gmail-css-1g7m0tk" href="https://twitter.com/bariweiss" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border:0px none currentcolor;color:rgb(50,104,145);font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">@bariweiss</a>), a staff writer and editor for the Opinion section, is the author of the forthcoming “How to Fight Anti-Semitism.” </p><p class="gmail-css-jwz2nf etfikam0" style="border:0px none currentcolor;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:1.37rem;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;width:100%"><br></p></div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>