The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts recently approved changes to a memorial sculpture of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that added a hint of a smile and smoothed his brow.
In an April letter the commission’s secretary said that depicting King with his arms crossed was too “confrontational” and similar to socialist realism.
Lenin wrote that the ruling class will hound revolutionary leaders in their lifetimes and turn them into harmless icons following their deaths for the consolation of the oppressed. Politicians and the media, who hated King when he lived, want workers to remember him as a “non-confrontational” leader. They celebrate his “I have a dream” speech while never mentioning his staunch opposition to the Vietnam War or his passionate efforts to organize sanitation workers.
The selection of a Chinese sculptor, Lei Yixin, also drew racist complaints from some who insisted on a U.S. artist.
