Monumental DEI: Statues of Generic Black Women Being Erected — Replacing the West’s Greats

By Selwyn Duke

Does it matter when a society’s long-present statues are torn down and replaced with very different ones? Well, consider an analogy. Imagine that upon coming home each day, you noticed that more and more pictures of your family members, which had adorned your walls, mantels, and desktops, were disappearing and were being replaced with those of people you don’t even recognize.

Would it matter?

Well, this is essentially what has been happening with our national family. For many years now, statues have been continually torn down/removed, replaced with people of little accomplishment and/or poor character. One of late cocaine-using Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry, erected in his city in 2018, is an example. Even further down the rabbit hole of risibility, statues and other monuments honoring criminal George Floyd appeared in 2020-2021.

She’s not anybody.

As if AI-born, the statue is of some generic black woman who, apparently, is supposed to represent black women. (Though some have made clear they’ve no desire to claim her.)

The Newer Colossus?

Reporting on the story last Thursday and providing perspective, the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC) writes:

In 2021, the New York City Public Design Commission generated heated controversy when it removed a statue of Thomas Jefferson from City Hall after 187 years. Now, America’s largest city is once again abuzz with statue talk for a different reason: a new 12-foot-tall bronze sculpture of an overweight black woman that appeared in Times Square this week.

The first question that comes to mind upon seeing the new “art installation” is obvious — why?

The answer is perhaps just as obvious. Like all modern art that our cultural elites insist we view as “brave” and “groundbreaking,” the Times Square Arts Association [TSAA] tells us that the piece, titled Grounded in the Stars, “cuts a stark contrast to the pedestaled permanent monuments — both white, both men, which bookend Duffy Square.”

In other words, it’s about identity politics and forcing Times Square’s 131 million annual visitors to, as the arts association puts it “confront preconceived notions of identity and representation” — whatever that means.

The not-very-statuesque new statue can be seen in the tweet below.

Another tasteless statue of a generic contemporary woman, this one in the middle of Times Square, meant to “respond” to the other “statues of men.” This is not “public art.” It is untalented, uninspired promotion of tired culture war propaganda that defaces public space. https://t.co/JwJRQIsAhD pic.twitter.com/rknu39Hdos

— Andrew Beck (@AndrewBeckUSA) May 7, 2025

What They’re Hiding

Now, something the TSAA wrote is interesting. The new statue, it stated, “cuts a stark contrast to the pedestaled permanent monuments — both white, both men.” It’s telling, too, that nowhere does the TSAA mention who those “white men” are, even though this really matters.

But one is Father Francis Duffy. And why was his statue erected?

Duffy is literally the most decorated clergyman in U.S. military history. For continually tending to the wounded amid bombs falling and bullets flying, he received the Distinguished Service Cross, among other medals, during WWI. In other words, the man was “number one” in his sphere in all of history — the “best.”

The other “white man” (a sin to be, I know) whose statue adorns Times Square is entertainer George M. Cohan. Now while an entertainer is no war hero, Cohan did write and star in more than 50 Broadway musicals. In fact, becoming known as “The Man Who Owned Broadway,” he for a long time lived near NYC’s theater district.

The point is that these men aren’t honored because someone suddenly said, “Hey, let’s recognize a coupla white guys! Let’s emphasize how white America is!” Race had nothing to do with it. It concerned accomplishment.

Yet all the TSAA would say about the two figures is that they were “both white, both men.” To that organization and its co-ideologists, race has everything to do with it.

Revisionist History

So such efforts are affirmative action, or DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), applied to history and culture. The issue is, too, that these social engineers have a problem with reality. History, which shapes culture, is simply this: “What happened.”

And what happened in the West, like it or not, is that it unsurprisingly was shaped by Westerners. And since the West traditionally was “white” civilization, virtually all our notable historical figures are white. We therefore can’t present Western history honestly without going heavy on the “white men.”

The current elevation of black women isn’t so elevating, either. As American Thinker (AT) points out, the

installation of generic and completely unexceptional monuments to black people is an attack on Western (mostly white) excellence, and a “humiliation ritual” against the black community as a whole

AT then presents the following tweet from black female thinker Wanjiru Njoya, who makes the latter point.

Stop taking down historic statues and putting statues of big black women in their place.

Stop humiliating black women just to perform your sick humiliation rituals. https://t.co/2Tqj753xup pic.twitter.com/nVG6KG6rDc

— Wanjiru Njoya (@WanjiruNjoya) May 8, 2025

As AT also mentions, the Times Square abomination is part of a larger movement, too (tweet below).

Why are these statues popping up everywhere? pic.twitter.com/GThW45gETu

— Retro Coast (@RetroCoast) May 9, 2025

To elaborate on Njoya’s point, consider the message these statues could be seen as sending. The cultural devolutionaries could erect a monument to, let’s say, abolitionist and underground-railroad heroine Harriet Tubman. But by choosing generic black women, people could infer this: “They’re saying black women are so unaccomplished, so unimpressive, that a fictional black woman is as good as or better than an example of the real thing.”

I wrote “could” because, in reality, this more than anything else is an identity-politics phenomenon and an attack on meritocracy. “Accomplishment” is a white concept, anyway, to the relativistic cultural devolutionaries. Why, one man’s sentient biped’s accomplishment is another’s defect.

“When Systems Fall, So Do Statues” — Russia Beyond in 2012

Ideally, our monuments should elevate and enrich society in some way. For example, you could point out to your son that Father Duffy was the embodiment of heroic virtue. He was a paragon of courage and self-sacrifice. (And providing consistent examples of virtue helps breed good children.) But what can you say when your little daughter asks in Times Square, “Who is that lady?”

“I don’t know, Lily; she’s nobody. But if you eat a lotta Twinkies and don’t move around too much, you can be just like her!”

Unfortunately, though, what’s occurring culturally is no joke. Just ask Elizabeth Rogliani, a Venezuelan actress living in the United States — for she has seen this all before. “Why do I even worry about some silly little statues coming down or some silly little street names changing? Why do I care?” she asked rhetorically in a viral 2020 video.

“It’s because the last time I didn’t care about this, I was a teenager,” she explained. “I have already lived through this thing, when I was living in Venezuela.”

“Statues came down, [socialist leader Hugo] Chávez didn’t want the history displayed,” Rogliani continued. “And then he changed the street names, then came the curriculum [in schools]. Then some movies couldn’t be shown on certain TV channels — and so on, and so forth.”

It’s just as with the pictures being replaced in the family-home analogy. Replacing statues is a cultural canary in the coal mine. It’s a visible, obvious sign that your civilization is being remade. And if we’re not sufficiently concerned about what it’s being remade into, perhaps we deserve to lose all that is great and good.

Addendum: For those interested, Professor Thomas Sowell brilliantly analyzes the statue phenomenon in the below video.

                   This article was originally published at The New American.