As the country takes a magnifying glass to modern day issues of race, statues depicting everything from Confederate generals to Christopher Columbus are coming under fire.
The latest target: a statue of Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia (UVA) – the campus currently in the spotlight due to it being the location of the tumultuous “Unite the Right” rally weeks ago.
Finally confirmed: @UVA police are investigating vandalism of Jefferson Statue at Rotunda on Sat night/Sun am. It’s since been cleaned up. pic.twitter.com/lI6OEBDM5r
— Dean Seal (@JDeanSeal) August 24, 2017
According to The Daily Progress, University of Virginia police are looking into a vandalism of the Jefferson statue. The iconic figure was defaced with what looks to be splashes of red paint.
Although the Founding Father was far from a Confederate, this development shouldn’t be too surprising considering the recent blind-hatred towards monuments depicting most all leaders from our nation’s past. After all, the vandalism matches the rhetoric floating around UVA.
Students at UVA have reportedly said that the Jefferson statue is a “symbol of white supremacy.” Prior student protests of Jefferson even prompted a response from a Professor Emeritus in 2016. This is the same school where the university president had to defend herself for quoting Thomas Jefferson, the school’s founder.
The hysteria over the desire to remove Confederate statues has become so ridiculous that a petition is circulating to replace the Confederate monuments in Portsmouth, Virginia with statues of Missy Elliott.
The Daily Progress is reporting that UVA police received the report of vandalism at 3:20 in the morning on Sunday but refused to acknowledge it until Thursday. At time of publication, the perpetrator of vandalism had not been identified.
