Destroying Antiracist Art Will Not End Racism
San Francisco’s school board is destroying an important antiracist mural created by a communist in the 1930s. And progressives at places like the Nation magazine are applauding for some reason.
A detail from Victor Arnautoff’s 13-panel mural, Life of Washington, 1937, at George Washington High School in San Francisco, California. George Washington stands by his advisers while pointing toward a group of colonizers walking past the body of a dead Native American. (Ron Cherny)
If you’re on the Left in America, you really need to savor the victories. And in the past century and a half, it was only when radicals made common cause with a broader progressive coalition that made those victories possible. That’s the story of slavery’s demise, Jim Crow’s destruction, and the labor movement’s forward march.
The 1930s Popular Front stands firmly in this tradition. Socialists, communists, and liberals working hand in hand to expose the gross inequities of American life and force the Roosevelt administration into action. While Europe descended into authoritarianism and even fascism, the Popular Front celebrated the struggles of the many against the few.
But lately, it’s the liberals who’ve soured on that partnership. A minority at even the mighty progressive voice the Nation are not only rejecting our modern day overtures toward a new popular front, they’re looking to erase the last vestiges of the past alliance, too.
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