In news totally unrelated to the fiasco that is the presidential election – because really, we could all use a break – it turns out even ancient Roman rules can’t escape cancel culture.
Even when they’re, you know, really, really dead.
A student group over at Brown University, which used to be a pretty reputable Ivy League school but which is now apparently so lax that their students have copious amounts of free time on their hands, is now demanding that the school’s Caesar Augustus and Marcus Aurelius statues be removed from campus because they represent "white supremacy and white civilization."
The group argues the statues are “upholding the ideals of the 'perfect' white form, white civilization, white supremacy, and colonialism.” Instead the school should install pieces that “focus on art by Black and Indigenous artists” as part of “a broader project of decolonization.”
Oh, and it gets worse. The university is apparently entertaining this ridiculousness, saying that while it won’t actually remove the statues, it will relocate them. The Caesar Augustus statue, for example, will be placed near the campus’ slavery memorial.
A spokesperson for the school told Campus Reform that the university hasn’t received an actual official proposal to take down the statues entirely, but that they wouldn’t outright dismiss such a suggestion if it were made.
"The University has received no proposal regarding the removal of statues on campus. If we do receive a proposal, we'd work through our established structures for considering public art on the Brown campus. Those would likely include our public art working group, which has representation from faculty, staff and students, as well as our governing board's subcommittee on public art," the spokesperson said.