Inner-city blacks are rejecting calls from a Chicago pastor to tear down a local George Washington monument and change the name of Washington Park. For one community organizer, the attacks against our nation’s historical monuments are an attempt to manufacture a race war that won’t help anyone in the black community.
In the fallout of the Charlottesville, VA, rally over the removal of a Robert E. Lee monument, Bishop James Dukes, a pastor, is calling for the name of Chicago’s Washington Park to change and for the removal of the park’s monument to our nation’s first president, George Washington.
Chicago community organizer Paul McKinley invited my co-producer, Andrew Marcus, and me on a tour of the south side neighborhood surrounding Washington Park to hear from him and other residents their feelings on the media manufactured debate to erase our nation’s history.
McKinley, along with area residents we encountered during our shoot, disagree with Dukes and say George Washington should be left alone.
In our new short film, Smashing Statues: The Race War Hoax – shot, produced, and edited by Rebel Pundit and released exclusively to Breitbart News – McKinley explains how the Charlottesville debacle was a “bait and switch” designed by Democrat and communist revolutionary forces to distract the people from what is really going on in the community.
McKinley says, “While they’re talking about changing the name, our community needs jobs, contracts, and opportunities. This is a way to stop talking about black folks [not] working. Black folks … got no contracts. Our schools [are] being closed down. Our houses [are] being boarded up. But you want to talk about a statue.”
“The Democrat Party has proven it cannot feed the African American community. So they’re pretending that, okay, we’re going to fight your fight about something that’s got something to do with racism,” he adds.
At the statue, a group of local residents having a picnic after work chimed in on the issue.
After establishing that, George Washington was, in fact, a slave owner, they told us the statue should stand.
One of the residents informed the group of the Dukes calls to potentially replace President George Washington’s monument with a statue of Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington. To which another replied, “Let it stay up there. What are they taking it down for? Harold Washington ain’t gonna change nothing if you put his statue up there. Leave that statue alone. Let George Washington stay up there.”
Another woman on the scene followed us back to our truck to make the point: “The big issue right now needs to be people trying to survive out here because that statue ain’t going to prove no point … this statue’s been sitting there for so long that should be the last thing on people’s mind is that statue!”
In agreement with the local residents, McKinley pointed out the despair and acres of vacant, undeveloped land surrounding the park.
“Here’s a block, here, where you only got two houses on the whole block. Both sides of the street,” he says. “Let’s go two blocks from the park….just vacant land….the Democrats [have done] nothing for black folks in the black neighborhood. They get the money from Washington, DC, to do the development in the community and they don’t do nothing.”
“You think these people walking around here [are] concerned about whose name is on the park and they don’t have no livelihood in their community?” he continues.
McKinley closed by telling us, “The majority of black folks feel like the people that you were [just] talking to. Majority of them feel like this is a game. This is garbage. It ain’t real. Y’all lying. This ain’t on nothing. That’s how the majority of black people feel.”
Jeremy Segal is a filmmaker and founder of RebelPundit. Follow @RebelPundit on Twitter and Subscribe on RebelPundit YouTube to see more.
Andrew Marcus is a filmmaker and Director of the Motion Picture, Hating Breitbart, available on iTunes. Follow him on Twitter @ImAndrewMarcus.