A Statue Of Teddy Roosevelt In NYC Is Going To Be Removed

Source: Erik McGregor / Getty

As citizens all across the nation call for racial equality, long-standing statues are dropping like flies.

According to reports from The New York Times, a statue of former president Theodore Roosevelt–which stands at the entrance of The American Museum of Natural History in New York City– is going to be removed. Of course, this decision is related to the nationwide movement against police brutality, which has resulted in multiple monuments being removed across the United States.

The statue depicts Roosevelt on horseback wearing hunter’s clothing, flanked by a Native American and Black man. Those were apparently intended to represent guides for America and Africa. The statue has been up in front of the museum since 1940, and even though the building sits on public land, it is privately owned. The owners requested that the statue be taken down following protestors vandalizing it, and New York City agreed with their proposal.

According to reports from TMZ, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the statue “explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior.” He went on to claim that now is the time to “remove this problematic statue.”

Ellen Futter, the museum’s president, rationalized the decision to remove the statue in a comment given to the New York Times.

“Over the last few weeks, our museum community has been profoundly moved by the ever-widening movement for racial justice that has emerged after the killing of George Floyd. We have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism. Simply put, the time has come to move it.”

Another racist statue down, a million more to go.