New faces on our money?
Jul 27, 2020, 2:49 PM | Updated: Jul 28, 2020, 8:56 am
(File, Associated Press)
With names changing on public buildings and statues coming down almost everywhere, the cancel culture now also wants to remake our money.
A full page in The New York Times proposed new faces for our coins and bills — emphasizing diversity and artistic achievement, not political leadership. They wanted Marsha P. Johnson, a self-identified Black drag queen and activist, for the $10 bill, with Wilma Mankiller, first female chief of the Cherokee nation, for the $5 bill.
More than 50 other historical figures also received consideration — with white males mentioned only if they were gay, or leftist radicals. This meant no Mark Twain, no Frank Lloyd Wright, no Frank Capra, no George Gershwin, and so forth.
In fact, reviewing the Times list reveals an inconvenient truth: In the arts, as in government, the American tradition has been shaped most importantly, though hardly exclusively, by males of European ancestry. Pretending otherwise counts as both ignorant and dishonest.