Lessons from History

June 5, 2020 8:20 AM

After an Egyptologist Tweeted Instructions on How to Knock Down an Obelisk, Protesters Tried It Out on a Confederate Monument. It Worked. Art history doesn’t usually have much to offer in the way of practical, directly actionable lessons. But Sarah Parcak, a renowned professor of Egyptology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, recently plumbed humanity’s cultural past to offer some very concrete advice. On Sunday, she posted detailed, step-by-step instructions on Twitter (including a helpful diagram) for how to tear down an obelisk, culled from her research into ancient Egypt. (For every 10 feet of monument, you need 40 or more people; use rope attached to a chain; everyone should wear gloves; pull hard in unison from either side.)

After she shared the sketch, she added, “There might be one just like this in downtown Birmingham! What a coincidence. Can someone please show this thread to the folks there.”

posted by plant or animal (40 comments total)

I mean, if people do want to pull down Washington Monument, that would be fine by me, but probably a lot harder to coordinate.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:32 AM on June 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

Also awesome: Birmingham Mayor Woodfin having the monument removed, even though the state AG will likely sue the city under the ridiculous "Alabama Memorial Conservation Act." Woodfin: “I understand the AG’s office can bring a civil suit against the city and if there’s a judgement rendered from a judge, then we should be held accountable and I am willing to accept that because that is a lower cost than civil unrest in our city.” That's leadership!
posted by dellsolace at 8:43 AM on June 5, 2020 [79 favorites]

But then how would we know how tall the buildings in DC are allowed to be?
posted by tivalasvegas at 8:43 AM on June 5, 2020 [9 favorites]

It's 55' wide at the base. Pull it sideways and there's your new limit. DC Demolition would be a heckuva stimulus package.
posted by stevis23 at 8:52 AM on June 5, 2020

But then how would we know how tall the buildings in DC are allowed to be?

Easy, they can't be any taller than the new monuments and memorials to the Black people who built the country and the Native Americans whose land was stolen to build it.

As a compromise I am willing to keep the existing monument but rededicate it as a memorial to those groups, with a particular emphasis on Washington's own slaveholding and perpetration of genocide.
posted by jedicus at 8:53 AM on June 5, 2020 [24 favorites]

But the state’s attorney general sued the city over the move, arguing it violated the new Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, which protects against the relocation or alteration of confederate symbols that are more than 40 years old.

I think the obvious answer here then is to build a larger monument that surrounds or engulfs it. The original is still there, and you haven't technically altered it, you've simply built a larger monument over it. I suggest they start with one of Rep. John Lewis. (He was born in Alabama.)
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 8:54 AM on June 5, 2020 [13 favorites]

The fun thing about the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act is that it stipulates a one-time $25K fine with no other penalties. Paying $25K for removal of each Confederate monument seems like an okay price for cities to pay to me!
posted by Automocar at 8:56 AM on June 5, 2020 [52 favorites]

I guess you get what you put energy into
posted by Organic4ever at 8:57 AM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

$25K? Geez, I mean, OK I'm skewed by the tech industry and all, but that's a pittance. Like, did the people who wrote it secretly agree with tearing them down, and just kinda sliiiiide it by the GOP Asshole Brigade?
posted by aramaic at 8:58 AM on June 5, 2020 [12 favorites]

I bet they wrote the law when $25,000 was a lot more money

and I mean the city's saving on labour costs, they don't have to put it out for tender or anything
posted by Merus at 9:06 AM on June 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

I believe the bill was written in 2016.
posted by Automocar at 9:07 AM on June 5, 2020 [8 favorites]

Might make some of that back in salvage of a metal statue, too.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:15 AM on June 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Once they're down, turn it into a party. Five swings with a sledge hammer for $20, all proceeds to BLM charities.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:16 AM on June 5, 2020 [17 favorites]

Ah, yes, there's been so much inflation since 2017.

A) The bill refers to "an entity exercising control of public property" as the party subject to fine, so while $25k is not much for the City of Birmingham, it might be a substantial fine for like Podunk Elementary School.

B) It applies to renaming stuff, too. Including buildings and streets.

C) Obviously the bill was always meant to be a propagandistic gesture more than a practical piece of legislation anyway.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:17 AM on June 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

And of course there are GoFundMes and Kickstarters or whatever to help them pay that fine or build a new park. I thought I heard of more, but I can't find them right now.
posted by Snowishberlin at 9:30 AM on June 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

Is there any video of the "it worked" part?
posted by Reverend John at 9:54 AM on June 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

The new Pharaoh chisels the noses off all the old Pharaoh's statues, and paints over his posters. Yeah, that always works.
posted by mule98J at 9:56 AM on June 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

Original Twitter thread if anyone prefers that.
posted by Margalo Epps at 10:04 AM on June 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

The new Pharaoh chisels the noses off all the old Pharaoh's statues, and paints over his posters. Yeah, that always works.

Hm, are you suggesting that it's a pointless gesture? As opposed to leaving it up?

One benefit of damnatio memoriae is that we stop celebrating a psychopathic regime.
posted by ishmael at 10:08 AM on June 5, 2020 [10 favorites]

The new Pharaoh chisels the noses off all the old Pharaoh's statues, and paints over his posters. Yeah, that always works.

The people defending Confederate monuments say that if we tear them down, we erase history. If you're correct, and that isn't true, then it seems to me we can tear them all down and everyone will still get what they want!
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:21 AM on June 5, 2020 [19 favorites]

Demolishing a statue of a damn traitor shouldn’t cost the taxpayers $25K. You tear it down, and charge its admirers to not melt it into slag.
posted by drivingmenuts at 10:27 AM on June 5, 2020 [8 favorites]

> Is there any video of the "it worked" part?

It didn't. They removed it with a crane after the mayor promised to make it happen. I've been unable to verify that the Egyptologist's tweet actually engendered any action: I don't think they tried or may have even been aware of it. The headline seems to be factually incorrect and misleading.

There has been no more important time to be critical of what one takes at face value especially if one agrees with it than right now.

The hero in this story is not the egyptologist or the rabble.

The hero is Mayor Randall Woodfin. Please don't take my word for it though.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 10:48 AM on June 5, 2020 [9 favorites]

If they don't remove them, I would alter confederate monuments with a plaque titled "They Fought for Slavery", which would quote from both the Confederate State's "Declaration of Independence" and their Constitution:

"…an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the [U.S. Government] have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution".

"Article I Section 9(4): No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed".
posted by Omon Ra at 10:55 AM on June 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

The hero in this story is not the egyptologist or the rabble. The hero is Mayor Randall Woodfin.

These options are not mutually exclusive. Also, rabble?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:00 PM on June 5, 2020 [10 favorites]

The hero in this story is not the egyptologist or the rabble.

The hero is Mayor Randall Woodfin. Please don't take my word for it though.
posted by Ogre Lawless

What eponysterical horseshit. These monuments started going up over 100 years ago with the express purpose of terrorizing the black populace. We are finally at a point in our history where they are beginning to come come. I support the actions of Mayor Woodfin, but this was a reaction to the actions of the PEOPLE who went out there and took a stand. Dismissing them as rabble is offensive.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 12:04 PM on June 5, 2020 [22 favorites]

Wow, way to read the room, Ogre Lawless.
posted by Kitchen Witch at 12:27 PM on June 5, 2020 [8 favorites]

People peacefully petitioning their government for positive change and the leadership of the government responding to enact that change is how this is all supposed to work. The Egyptologist deserves credit for supporting the protesters, the protesters deserve credit for their activism, and the mayor deserves credit for quickly and decisively acting in the public interest. The only bad guys here are the morons who passed the law making this harder than it needs to be. Not sure why this needs to be painted as an adversarial thing between a "hero" mayor and a "rabble".
posted by biogeo at 12:54 PM on June 5, 2020 [10 favorites]

I'm glad the monument came down, and I agree with Ogre Lawless that its false and misleading for the headline to say that they tried the Egyptologist's method for toppling an obelisk and that it worked.

On the other hand, as a would-be rabble-rouser myself, I can't help but wonder if maybe there isn't another obelisk honoring the Confederacy somewhere for us to experiment on.
posted by Reverend John at 1:12 PM on June 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

Decatur, GA has an obelisk to white supremacy we would desperately like to get rid of, but the state won't let us.

We do have a sign "contextualizing" it that at least makes it clear that a bunch of racist losers put it up. But we'd be glad to take that sign down if the monument were to no longer be vertical.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:26 PM on June 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

I think the obvious answer here then is to build a larger monument that surrounds or engulfs it. The original is still there, and you haven't technically altered it, you've simply built a larger monument over it. I suggest they start with one of Rep. John Lewis. (He was born in Alabama.)

The act has that covered. Birmingham had previously been fined 25K for surrounding the monument with plywood hoarding.
posted by Mitheral at 3:15 PM on June 5, 2020 [6 favorites]

So, here's a Threadreader version of her tweets. Seems like it begins a bit earlier than what was linked in the article, and goes into a bit more detail.

An NPR article mentions that the Decatur obelisk is about 30ft tall, so by her estimate we're going to need about 120 rabble (40 rabble per 10 ft of obelisk), 2 150 ropes or chains, and gloves for everyone.
posted by Reverend John at 3:34 PM on June 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

I like the idea that we start measuring the height of Confederate monuments in rabble.
posted by biogeo at 4:25 PM on June 5, 2020 [12 favorites]

Sounds good to me, Reverend John. It shouldn't be hard to find the necessary rabble.

For reference purposes, pictures of our protest on Wed, featuring some good shots of the obelisk with extra contextualization added by the protesters.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:34 PM on June 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

Rabble for Rubble
posted by speicus at 4:48 PM on June 5, 2020 [10 favorites]

I mean, if people do want to pull down Washington Monument, that would be fine by me, but probably a lot harder to coordinate

...Washington Monument Struck By Lightning
posted by oulipian at 6:18 PM on June 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

$25k may not go very far in the tech world, but the mayor has been trying to tear it down for a few years and was blocked because of that law because they don’t have the funds. Thanks to the protests, it became cheaper to tear it down (that much police overtime isn’t cheap).

Protests work.
posted by fragmede at 1:08 AM on June 6, 2020 [8 favorites]

There are a few empty plinths around New Orleans where there used to be statues of traitorous assholes who fought for slavery. Every time I pass them I am delighted. Especially by the "ONLY COMM DesTrOW HISTrov" spray-painted on the one that's near my home.

Sadly some of the streets they are on are still named after said traitorous slaver assholes. There's new petitions to fix that going around.

Knowing that there is an empty space where there used to be a monument to racism is a really good feeling, that I'm delighted the people of Birmingham will get to share, though I'm hoping that someday we get these spaces replaced by monuments to people who were actually important to the city in a good way. But getting them down is a delight in and of itself.
posted by egypturnash at 2:23 PM on June 6, 2020 [6 favorites]

Well, it looks like it works...

Earlier in the day, in Bristol, protesters used ropes to pull down the bronze statue of Edward Colston, a prominent 17th Century slave trader, who has been a source of controversy in the city for many years.

(This was yesterday afternoon...)
posted by onyermarx at 10:40 PM on June 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Update: The City of Decatur filed a lawsuit saying the monument had become a public nuisance because it was constantly being vandalized and because of the risk of someone taking the egyptologist's advice and bringing it down, potentially injuring passers-by. The court agreed, and last night the city took down the monument! We no longer have words engraved on our square saying that some of our people are less worthy of full civil rights than others.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:16 AM on June 19, 2020 [6 favorites]

BBC: Protesters topple statues in US states
posted by oulipian at 7:35 AM on June 20, 2020 [1 favorite]