Imagine my surprise that an actual conversation has broken out on the digital posting of our coverage of the decision to remove a WPA mural from Percy Julian Middle School. Now the story widens out as Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School and Mann School plan to put two additional WPA murals into storage.
In brief, the story is that students at each school have raised concerns about the display of murals created some 90 years back as part of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. The murals at the middle schools were painted by one artist and purport to show children playing summer and winter sports in Oak Park. Not surprisingly all the children shown are white, sort of whiter-than-white in a life-was-never-actually-like-this-in-the-first-place sort of way.
I‘m no art critic or art historian but the middle school murals seem like fourth-rate Norman Rockwell. They were nostalgia pieces the day they were glued to the wall. They represent to me an Oak Park that never existed. And most certainly they don’t represent the fantastic diverse mix of people who call Oak Park home these days.
This is the sort of story with every potential to go sideways once it is posted online and on social media. A stark position on why history should never be erased is followed by a stern “how dare you” damage our children by exposure to this perverse art. And then I expected a race to the rat hole and finally our decision to close comments on the story.
Instead, over the course of the week, the discussion at OakPark.com and on Facebook has become more nuanced. More people are joining in the conversation rather than devolving to the usual five suspects reinforcing their own views. We’re hearing from the “add artwork that reflects diversity” and the “don’t subtract existing artwork” viewpoints. There are the proponents of the “teachable moment” view. Some suggest that it is imperative to hear the voice of students who are concerned or upset by the art. Others worry that students triggered by a mural won’t be able to cope with more overt racism in the world. There are the supporters of independent decision-making at each school and those who believe this is a topic with broad policy implications that the school board should take up. Some commenters worry that, in the month after District 97 adopted a powerful racial equity policy, the murals are a small but real distraction, others that the point of the equity policy is to see everything school-related through the lens of racial equity.
We have people using the words “with all due respect” who actually seem to mean it, not just as a preface to a blunt-force takedown.
As the local editor and publisher who sometimes contemplates shutting down all comments because who needs more miserableness in the world, this is a golden moment. So please, join the conversation, explore the grey, admit your conflicts, acknowledge when a fair point has been made.
Yes, we won some awards: It’s spring in Illinois so the soybean fields are underwater, road construction is just underway and the drive to Springfield is as endlessly dull as ever. But drive we do, as last week was the annual gathering of the Illinois Press Association and its awards for editorial and advertising.
A couple of years ago when we remodeled our offices, we ditched 20 years’ worth of handsome plaques we’d won. There were boxes and boxes and walls covered with plaques that required a whole lot of Spackle. But we gladly accept the new ones that come our way, this year General Excellence in advertising for the Journal, Austin Weekly News and Forest Park Review, General Excellence in editorial for the Austin Weekly among large circulation weeklies. Many awards for our editorial design staff. And especially proud of the first place earned by Michael Romain for his 10 essays which ran parallel to the America to Me documentary.
