Liberal-leaning demonstrators have railed against historical figures' perceived racism and bigotry and have even destroyed their statues. But does their outrage extend to these liberal icons?
The Social Reformer
Should this historical figure be cancelled?
After all, this historical figure thought that government should give “give certain dysgenic groups in our population their choice of segregation or sterilization.”
Years earlier, this historical figure wrote that “we are paying for, and even submitting to, the dictates of an ever-increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.”
How did this historical figure believe that this class of people should be dealt with? As this historical figure wrote, “eugenics is suggested by the most diverse minds as the most adequate and thorough avenue in the solution of racial, political and social problems.”
So should this historical figure be cancelled? Because this historical figure is Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.
The Founder of the Party
Should this historical figure be cancelled? After all, this historical figure said of Native Americans:
“They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear.”
So should this historical figure be cancelled? Because this historical figure is President Andrew Jackson, the founder of the Democratic Party.
The Grandfather of the Movement
Should this historical figure be cancelled? After all, this historical figure referred to a Jewish colleague as a “Jewish n****r” and said of another:
It is now quite plain to me — as the shape of his head and the way his hair grows also testify — that he is descended from the negroes who accompanied Moses’ flight from Egypt (unless his mother or paternal grandmother interbred with a n****r). Now, this blend of Jewishness and Germanness, on the one hand, and basic negroid stock, on the other, must inevitably give rise to a peculiar product. The fellow’s importunity is also n****r-like.
So should this historical figure be cancelled? Because this historical figure is Karl Marx, the author of “The Communist Manifesto.”
The Philosopher
Should this historical figure be cancelled? After all, this historical figure wrote that “We regard economic conditions as that which ultimately determines historical development, but race is in itself an economic factor.”
This historical figure believed that race was the primary reason for economic and cultural disparities, noting “that the inheritance of acquired characteristics extended … from the individual to the species.
“If, for instance, among us mathematical axioms seem self-evident to every eight-year-old child and in no need of proof from evidence that is solely the result of ‘accumulated inheritance.’ It would be difficult to teach them by proof to a bushman or to an Australian Negro.”
So should this historical figure be cancelled? Because this historical figure is Friedrich Engels, who worked with Marx to develop modern socialism.
The Revolutionary
Should this historical figure be cancelled? After all, this historical figure said that “The Negro is indolent and lazy and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent.”
So should this historical figure be cancelled? Because this historical figure is Che Guevara.
The 'Greatest' President
Should this historical figure be cancelled? After all, this historical figure said that the only immigrants who should be allowed into the United States are those who have “blood of the right sort” and that immigration should be restricted “for a good many years to come” until the U.S. has been able to “digest” the immigrants it has already accepted.
This historical figure spoke of “ridding this land of the alien anarchist, the criminal syndicalist and all similar anti-Americans” and complained about “the foreign elements” who were overcrowding “our large cities” and “do not easily conform to the manners and the customs and the requirements of their new home.”
In particular, “Japanese immigrants are not capable of assimilation into the American population,” he said. “Anyone who has traveled in the Far East knows that the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results.”
So should this historical figure be cancelled? Because this historical figure is President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The Civil Rights 'Hero':
Should this historical figure be cancelled? After all, this historical figure referred to Civil Rights legislation as “the n****r bill” and said after nominating prominent civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall to be the first black man to sit on the Supreme Court, “When I appoint a n****r to the bench, I want everybody to know he’s a n****r.”
This historical figure even said to his chauffeur:
As long as you are black, and you’re gonna be black till the day you die, no one’s gonna call you by your g*****n name. So no matter what you are called, n****r, you just let it roll off your back like water, and you’ll make it. Just pretend you’re a goddamn piece of furniture.
So should this historical figure be cancelled? Because this historical figure is President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The American Saint
Should this historical figure be cancelled? After all, this historical figure told a young boy who admitted that he was having romantic feelings for other boys to see a psychiatrist.
“The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something that has been culturally acquired,” this historical figure wrote.
“It is necessary to deal with this problem by getting back to some of the experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit. In order to do this I would suggest that you see a good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the forefront of conscience all of those experiences and circumstances that lead to the habit.”
So should this historical figure be cancelled? Because this historical figure is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.