Diversity and Communication: Blog Assignment 7

On our Campus

Read the following article and share your thoughts. Include the following: location of both statues, positioning of “Unsung Founders Memorial” (as a table), selection of artist.

http://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/arts/story/213404.html

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The Unsung Founders Memorial is located in the Upper Quad on campus, near the Confederate Monument, better known as "Silent Sam," which honors the soldiers who died in the Civil War. The Unsung Founders Memorial was created to honor the African Americans, both enslaved and free, who helped build UNC's campus. The statue has been the center of many many discussions and controversys surrounding the design and location of the monument.

Some of the monuments features under speculation include its size, function, positioning, and color. The monument is one of several monuments found in a single north to south line, including silent sam, the old well, the bell tower, and another white monument (i've temporarily forgotten which it is). Unlike those I have just named, the Unsung memorial is placed off of this line slightly. The monument is also the only black one, and is also lower to the ground and used as a table. Some take offense that the small figures on the monument are still working for the white students even today. Others take offense that the designer of the work was not African American, but Korean.

So, what do I have to say about this memorial? Honestly, I think I am a bit over the discussion. I have discussed this memorial in several classes, with friends, teachers, strangers, all numbers and types of people. So, for me, it is less about what the monument itself is, and more about the discussion it generates. Obviously, the artist did not intentionally mean to offend anyone. And I believe while some people over analyze it, I do also believe some of the issues people have with it are justified. And so, what has the monument done? Do you think students and visitors coming to campus look at the monument and their perceptions on slavery, the significance of it, the injustice of it all changes? That it is suddenly okay and that it is still present in todays society? No. Do you think a monument that "properly" memorialized these strong people- perhaps a full size statue of an individual, in line with the others would make people think of the situation differently? Maybe. But do most people looking at Silent Sam think about those who died in the civil war? No. they giggle about the first unc campus tour they took and the joke about virgins. So, maybe the Unsung Founders Memorial is valuable just as it is, because of the discussion it generates.