Petition Demands Removal of Walt Whitman Statue at Rutgers University-Camden

Petition Demands Removal of Walt Whitman Statue at Rutgers University-Camden

We’ve gotten to the point where it seems like people are just doing this because they think they can.

The College Fix reports:

Petition demands statue of poet Walt Whitman be removed from Rutgers University-Camden

A statue of Walt Whitman, one of America’s most famous and influential poets, has come under fire at Rutgers University-Camden, where a petition demands his statue be removed.

The statue, featured prominently in the center of campus, pays homage to the author of the seminal work “Leaves of Grass,” as the poet lived in Camden upon his death in 1892 at age 72.

But the artist, sometimes called the “Bard of Democracy” whose poetry praised the American experiment, also held racist notions about African Americans, and for that some want the statue removed.

The petition states that “Rutgers-Camden has been making efforts recently to remove symbols around our campus which continue to perpetuate a racist past,” adding “the statue of Walt Whitman glorifies a man who we should not hold such a place of honor on our campus.”

“Our school encourages inclusion, diversity, and equity while Whitman stood for none of those things. He instead stood for white supremacy and racism against Black and Indigenous Americans,” states the petition, which has garnered 3,724 signatures as of July 22.

An update posted by the author of the petition states that the Office of the Chancellor of Rutgers-Camden has seen the petition and is creating a committee to address social justice issues on campus.

Now they're trying to remove a Walt Whitman statue. pic.twitter.com/265gVK2EW5

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) July 7, 2020

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