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[WinterIsComing]

The City of Corsicana, Texas, this week removed a popular gorilla statue from its cage in a community park playground after people complained it was racially insensitive.

A makeshift memorial cropped up Tuesday at the empty cage in Community Park, where “Dobby” the gorilla stood for the past 19 years. A Facebook page called “In Memory Of Dobby” reached more than 1,100 supporters, and a petition on Change.org calling for the statue to be returned fetched more than 2,300 signatures. A candlelight vigil took place Wednesday night and a protester sat inside the cage, vowing to remain until the statue was returned, a local CBS affiliate reported.

In response to the backlash, Corsicana city council member Jeff Smith announced on Facebook Wednesday that the city would return the gorilla to the park “as soon as weather permits.”

In an earlier post, he said the decision to remove the statue was “rushed into” and invited community members to express their opinions during a city council meeting on March 12.

Corsicana Mayor Don Denbow sent a letter Tuesday evening to the Corsicana Daily Sun, saying the gorilla was initially removed after “it was determined to be potentially racially insensitive.”

“This was brought to our attention by a few citizens,” the mayor said. “The circumstances were evaluated and determined to be valid. It was not possible to leave the gorilla without the cage due to safety reasons. The statue was top heavy and was caged initially to protect the children. The cage will be left and turned into a climbing feature. The City will look at replacing the display in the future.”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/1/corsicana-texas-removes-popular-gorilla-statue-bei/

I mean, seriously?!? Am I the only one thinking that complaining about a gorilla statue being 'racially insensitive' is a racist act?

Remove my cage if old.

 

[Sinfamy]

You're not the only one.
But I thought dailywire was one of those do not use sources.

 

[WinterIsComing]

Ouch thanks for the heads up, i'll edit it. Is there anywhere i can find the list of banned sources? Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but didn't find anything in the ToS.

 

[Rudelord]

I don't think it's a banned source anymore but I could be wrong, I didn't find anything about it either.

 

[Rocket Number 22]

Gorillas are now offensive...

 

[Indrid Cold1]

Coolest monkey in the jungle-gym

 

[MazeHaze]

I think holding a candel light vigil for the statue is even more ridiculous tbh.

 

[KevinKeene]

Let's kill all gorillas, they're racist.

 

[Vicetrailia]

Let's kill all gorillas, they're racist.

What are you outraged about now?

The statue got a couple complaints about it being race insensitive. They removed the statue. Some pepole petitioned to bring it back, and now they're going to have a public discussion about the statue. They said it will probably come back. All in all 20 people cared overall. Yay.

 

[appaws]

What a dumb world we live in.

This reminds me of someone I knew compaining about the scene where the Dad bathes with his kids in "Kiki's Delivery Service." He said it was "perverted." I was like, "Dude, you are the one who is perverted if you look at that and see something sexual."

 

[VAL0R]

I call my white little kids monkeys all the time. I was just pretending to pluck chunks off my toddler's ribs, eating her "monkey meat" (this is hilarious to her) at Walmart last night. I then started thinking that if we ever adopted a kid (something we have considered), and they happened to be black, I'd have to make sure to not say anything like that in public because of ridiculous stuff like this. "That horrible white man just pretended to eat MONKEY meat off that little black kid in that shopping cart!?!?!?!"

 

[KevinKeene]

What are you outraged about now?

The statue got a couple complaints about it being race insensitive. They removed the statue. Some pepole petitioned to bring it back, and now they're going to have a public discussion about the statue. They said it will probably come back. All in all 20 people cared overall. Yay.

I'm not outraged

 

[Kamina]

I don’t get it, Is it because the gorilla has black furr? What does an animal have to do with human races?

 

[VAL0R]

They're going to rename all "monkey bars" in playgrounds soon to something terrible like, "diversity rods", aren't they?

 

[Ridcully]

I think holding a candel light vigil for the statue is even more ridiculous tbh.

I think it's hilarious. The removal was an absurd overreaction to an imagined problem and people responded in kind.

 

[TheMikado]

Surprised no one posted a picture. The gorilla seems to be a black face caricature.

 

[VAL0R]

Surprised no one posted a picture. The gorilla seems to be a black face caricature.

I completely disagree. It looks like a silly cartoonish gorilla to me.

 

[Ridcully]

Surprised no one posted a picture. The gorilla seems to be a black face caricature.

Interesting that you chose not to, given the serious charge you're making there. Metro has quite a few pictures available, and it looks like a gorilla.

 

[VAL0R]

 

[Vicetrailia]

Interesting that you chose not to, given the serious charge you're making there. Metro has quite a few pictures available, and it looks like a gorilla.

This source has some decent info, 45 complaints. Statue does look like shit though, it does resemble blackface. Oh well, it's coming back.

 

[infinitys_7th]

Anyone find it interesting that the only people who see the statue and think "That looks like a black person" are the ones who pushed to have it removed?

Almost like they are projecting their prejudices onto everyone else.

 

[Catphish]

I call my daughter Monkey Pants.

You can't stop me. Don't even try.

 

[TheMikado]

Interesting that you chose not to, given the serious charge you're making there. Metro has quite a few pictures available, and it looks like a gorilla.

I was on mobile and couldn't. That's the reason because I'm actually known for posting images ironically.

 

[TheMikado]

Anyone find it interesting that the only people who see the statue and think "That looks like a black person" are the ones who pushed to have it removed?

Almost like they are projecting their prejudices onto everyone else.

Again for historical reference:

"Darky" iconography[edit]
The darky icon itself—googly-eyed, with inky skin; exaggerated white, pink or red lips; and bright, white teeth—became a common motif in entertainment, children's literature, mechanical banks and other toys and games of all sorts, cartoons and comic strips, advertisements, jewelry, textiles, postcards, sheet music, food branding and packaging, and other consumer goods.

The obvious issue being that most cartoon gorillas are not drawn like that. If you just do a google image search of "cartoon gorilla".

 

[infinitys_7th]

Again for historical reference:

"Darky" iconography[edit]
The darky icon itself—googly-eyed, with inky skin; exaggerated white, pink or red lips; and bright, white teeth—became a common motif in entertainment, children's literature, mechanical banks and other toys and games of all sorts, cartoons and comic strips, advertisements, jewelry, textiles, postcards, sheet music, food branding and packaging, and other consumer goods.

The obvious issue being that most cartoon gorillas are not drawn like that. If you just do a google image search of "cartoon gorilla".

You are really comparing a statue of a coneheaded gorilla baring its teeth to "It sure am sweet"?

 

[TheMikado]

You are really comparing a statue of a coneheaded gorilla baring its teeth to "It sure am sweet"?

Are you really ignoring the visual depiction being shown. Your argument seems to be that the traditionally racist and similar art style cannot be racist because it being used on a gorilla... another traditionally racist symbol.
I mean the physical description is matched almost exactly: googly-eyed, with inky skin; exaggerated white, pink or red lips; and bright, white teeth

 

[davepoobond]

Ok it looks a bit silly. I was imagining a bronze statue recreation that looked like a real gorilla not a cartoon gorilla.

It’s mostly just creepy looking.

 

[MazeHaze]

This stuff always blows my mind.

"Hey, that gorilla statue looks like a blackface charicature, can we not? Thanks"

"It'a not racist, you're the real racist! It's not offensive unless we say it is."

*holds candle light vigil for creepy blackface gorilla* "triggered yet snow flakes?"

It makes me want to puke everywhere.

 

[KevinKeene]

Sigh, the 'blackface everywhere!' crowd coming in here. I'm so glad to live in Europe.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Not sure the controversy here. I feel both sides are being a tad overzealous for what amounts to a rather ugly statue.

 

[appaws]

Not sure the controversy here. I feel both sides are being a tad overzealous for what amounts to a rather ugly statue.

I agree with this. No doubt they could get a much better looking gorilla statue.

 

[VAL0R]

Make everybody happy and and just fix the amateurish painting job. Gorilla fans keep him, blackface concerns are negated (maybe?).

 

[VAL0R]

I agree with this. No doubt they could get a much better looking gorilla statue.

Yeah, he has a weird ring around his head. It looks like maybe he was wearing a hat or something at one point.

 

[TheMikado]

Sigh, the 'blackface everywhere!' crowd coming in here. I'm so glad to live in Europe.

The fact that you can find more blackface images than gorilla images that look similar to the statue should be telling enough...

Tell you what, we can even play a game. find me all the gorilla pictures that look similar with black fur, rounded white eyes, exposed red around the mouth and white teeth and I will find all the black face images which look similar and we can take a tally.

 

[TheMikado]

Just for context I went and found more information for this.

1) The mayor doesn't know why it was erected 18 years ago.
2) There are numerous other animal statues as part of a zoo theme
3) They claim the cage was erected to prevent children from climbing on the gorilla
4) None of the other works are caged and children climb on them
5) None of the other works are painted in such a fashion

It seems the painting of the statue and cage came after the original erection of the statue which may be part of the problem and it may possibly be replaced with another gorilla statue, stripped of the paint, or repainted.

http://www.khou.com/article/news/lo...otentially-racially-insensitive/285-524385477
"The statue was part of a display of other zoo animal statues, including a tiger."

Further:
The city's mayor wrote the following in a blog post:

The City of Corsicana has recently made the decision to remove a display in Community Park. It was determined to be potentially racially insensitive. This was brought to our attention by a few citizens. The circumstances were evaluated and determined to be valid. It was not possible to leave the gorilla without the cage due to safety reasons. The statue was top heavy and was caged initially to protect the children. The cage will be left and turned into a climbing feature. The City will look at replacing the display in the future.​

The city seems to be coy about the reasons, but seemed to have determined the concerns were valid, so they may be aware that the painted aspect of the gorilla after its original erection was possibly racially motivated.

 

[TheMikado]

Ok it looks a bit silly. I was imagining a bronze statue recreation that looked like a real gorilla not a cartoon gorilla.

It’s mostly just creepy looking.

The problem is it may have originally been a bronzed statue similar to the others in the park. At some point it was painted that way which seems to be the issue surrounding the statue.
In fact an older image of the statue shows it without the red around its mouth....

 

[lil puff]

I agree with this. No doubt they could get a much better looking gorilla statue.

Agreed with this angle.

Remove it simply because it's fugly and never commission that artist again.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Under normal circumstances “thread whining” annoys me. Example: “Who Cares?”

That’s precisely how I feel about this thread, and yet I can’t let it go, because I detect an underlying motive for creating this thread.

In the grand scheme of all that is happening in the world, a thread about an ugly, misplaced, relic of a bygone time gorilla statue is the best you can do? No, it’s not. But this story was strategically-selected by the Daily Wire for clicks among reactionaries concerned with “outrage culture,” “political correctness,” and all that other insidious nomenclature, pretending to feign ignorance concerning the power of symbols.

Do better.

 

[TheMikado]

Actually found another older image of the gorilla, notice no red around the mouth.

It's entirely possible the re-painter didn't realize the connotations behind it but that doesn't mean it can't be corrected.

 

[God Enel]

Hopefully Donkey Kong will be in the next Donkey Kong game.

 

[lil puff]

Hopefully Donkey Kong will be in the next Donkey Kong game.

Please stop monkeying around.

 

[20cent]

"When I look at this gorilla statue, I see a black person. Maybe you don't see it but I do. And this is racist. You are racist for not seeing it by the way."

At this point, sure, whatever you say.

 

[TheMikado]

"When I look at this gorilla statue, I see a black person. Maybe you don't see it but I do. And this is racist. You are racist for not seeing it by the way."

At this point, sure, whatever you say.

I see you didn't read the thread at all. The gorilla is painted in way which it was not previous paint as. The way its painted now shares visual similarities to racist symbolism. Its not that its a gorilla, its how it was recently painted for some unknown reason.

 

[VAL0R]

Under normal circumstances “thread whining” annoys me. Example: “Who Cares?”

That’s precisely how I feel about this thread, and yet I can’t let it go, because I detect an underlying motive for creating this thread.

In the grand scheme of all that is happening in the world, a thread about an ugly, misplaced, relic of a bygone time gorilla statue is the best you can do? No, it’s not. But this story was strategically-selected by the Daily Wire for clicks among reactionaries concerned with “outrage culture,” “political correctness,” and all that other insidious nomenclature, pretending to feign ignorance concerning the power of symbols.

Do better.

Who is feigning ignorance in the power of symbols? I'm denying outright that a badly painted gorilla placed on a playground is a symbol, period. It's a plaything for children to look at and climb around, that depicts a large animal. Children love animals and love to play with and around images and icons of them, as everyone knows. Yes, of course we know that blacks have been compared to apes in the past, but why in the world would we uncharitably assume that the artist here had anything remotely like that in mind when he created this animal? That's a pretty vile motive that we have not even the slightest shred of evidence to support. I try not to assume evil motives of people with no evidence because that itself is a type of cruelty.

If the argument is, "Some people here are a little troubled that the gorilla looks like he has black face, can we alter it somehow to avoid that problem?", then fine. For the sake of those with overly fragile racial sensibilities, I would say, let's make a change for their sake. Why not try to make everyone happy in the community if possible? But removing images or icons of monkeys, apes or gorillas from children's play spaces as a general rule is unacceptably racially paranoid and, I'd argue, not good for society.

To a hammer everything looks like a nail. To someone obsessed with race everything looks racist.

 

[VAL0R]

I see you didn't read the thread at all. The gorilla is painted in way which it was not previous paint as. The way its painted now shares visual similarities to racist symbolism. Its not that its a gorilla, its how it was recently painted for some unknown reason.

Instead of having purple fur, he now was black fur and he now has pink lips instead of just a white mouth. That's a pretty tenuous link to replicating blackface. These playground statues are often painted like crap, probably by people in the community for little money. The guy/gal likely thought they were making the animal more realistic by changing the fur from purple to black and by adding some color to the lips. This is what a gorilla looks like after all. Why are we assuming the worst?

 

[TheMikado]

Instead of having purple fur, he now was black fur and he now has pink lips instead of just a white mouth. That's a pretty tenuous link to replicating blackface. These playground statues are often painted like crap, probably by people in the community for little money. The guy/gal likely thought they were making the animal more realistic by changing the fur from purple to black and by adding some color to the lips. This is what a gorilla looks like after all. Why are we assuming the worst?

As I said, the only motives I've giving are thus:
Its not that its a gorilla, its how it was recently painted for some unknown reason.
It's entirely possible the re-painter didn't realize the connotations behind it but that doesn't mean it can't be corrected.

At NO POINT DID I CALL THE PAINTER RACIST OR RACIST INTENT.

This begs the question why you seem keen to state I am "assuming the worst?"

As stated, the facts around the painting of the statue are suspicious when viewed as a whole.
The intent and motives do not take away from the fact of what it now more closely resembles.

Further I fail to see how adding red lips to an animal who does not have red lips makes that more "realistic" but whatever.
The point is the it looks really bad and closer to traditionally racist imagery when the fact is it wasn't like that before and doesn't need to continue to be.

I personally think they overacted by pulling the entire statue out, but I think at some point someone figured out whoever did it may have had a motive and that would explain the dramatic overreaction rather than just repainting it.
The entire setup sounds suspicious and they probably find some crap from the recent painting artist on social media, over reacted realizing this, and made a stupid over correction. If it was benign a simple repaint would have been enough.

 

[VAL0R]

Mikado, you said, "This begs the question why you seem keen to state I am "assuming the worst?"

The city seems to be coy about the reasons, but seemed to have determined the concerns were valid, so they may be aware that the painted aspect of the gorilla after its original erection was possibly racially motivated.

The above quote shows that you assume that the repainted gorilla "was possibly racially motivated." To openly speculate like that tells me that you assume there is a significant (worth mentioning) likelihood that the artist's depiction was a racist attack against blacks. That's what I meant by "assuming the worst."

 

[TheMikado]

Mikado, you said, "This begs the question why you seem keen to state I am "assuming the worst?"



The above quote shows that you assume that the repainted gorilla "was possibly racially motivated." To openly speculate like that tells me that you assume there is a significant (worth mentioning) likelihood that the artist's depiction was a racist attack against blacks. That's what I meant by "assuming the worst."

Because it was in response to this:

The city's mayor wrote the following in a blog post:
The City of Corsicana has recently made the decision to remove a display in Community Park. It was determined to be potentially racially insensitive. This was brought to our attention by a few citizens. The circumstances were evaluated and determined to be valid. It was not possible to leave the gorilla without the cage due to safety reasons. The statue was top heavy and was caged initially to protect the children. The cage will be left and turned into a climbing feature. The City will look at replacing the display in the future.

The Mayor of the city says he investigated it as being potentially racially insensitive and The circumstances were evaluated and determined to be valid. I didn't assume anything beyond the Mayor who would have more information in the matter determining that the concerns were valid for some reason. I do not know what they are, but the Mayor does and determined the concerns of racial insensitivity to be valid for some reason. It's right there in black and white and not something I invented. The mayor of the city is the one saying the claims were valid.

 

[Rocket Number 22]

Mikado, sometimes a gorilla is just a gorilla

 

[TheMikado]

Mikado, sometimes a gorilla is just a gorilla

That's not what the mayor of the city determined. That's why you leave those big boy decisions to those with information on the matter.