OK, guys. You’re definitely gonna want to gird your loins and brace yourselves for this exclusive scoop from the Washington Post on what’s really going on inside the U.S. Capitol building. Make sure you’re already sitting down in case you feel like you’re gonna faint or something:
Exclusive: A Washington Post investigation of more than 400 artworks in the U.S. Capitol building found that nearly one-third honor enslavers or Confederates. https://t.co/VTLeBgfpG0
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 28, 2022
Wow. Like, wow.
You may want to reconsider the name of your publication then while we're talking about this.
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) December 28, 2022
No kidding. That’s probably the very least that WaPo should do right now.
Is your mind blown by the headline? Wait til you get into the substance of the post. And there’s definitely some kind of substance here:
As part of a yearlong investigation into Congress’s relationship with slavery, The Washington Post analyzed more than 400 artworks in the U.S. Capitol building, from the Crypt to the ceiling of the Capitol Rotunda, and found that nearly one-third honor enslavers or Confederates. Another six honor possible enslavers — people whose slaveholding status is in dispute.
…
Just as governments and institutions across the country struggle with the complex and contradictory legacies of celebrated historical figures with troubling racial records, so too does any effort to catalog the role of the Capitol artworks’ subjects in the institution of slavery. This analysis, for example, includes at least four slaveholders – Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Rufus King and Bartolomé de las Casas – who voluntarily freed the people they enslaved and publicly disavowed slavery while they were living. Other people, like Daniel Webster and Samuel Morse, were vocal defenders of slavery but did not themselves enslave people; artworks honoring them are not counted in The Post’s tally.
…
The Capitol Rotunda, at the heart of the building, is particularly replete with enslavers. More than two dozen artworks there depict enslavers, from statues on its marble floors and paintings on the walls to friezes and murals overhead. It also includes the only known depiction of a female enslaver in the building: Martha Washington, who inherited 84 enslaved people from her first husband.
This investigation comes complete with detailed diagrams as well as a comprehensive breakdown of the methodology. In other words, it’s hardcore AF.
How is this an exclusive https://t.co/FQDNqFySg4
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) December 28, 2022
Narrator: It’s not an exclusive. It should definitely exclude WaPo from being taken seriously, however.
An investigation even. "Hey I need you to head over the Capitol and start looking at the racist paintings."
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) December 28, 2022
lololol i sorta love that an article based entirely on publicly available information and pacing around the capitol with a notepad is being promoting as "exclusive", as if archeologists opened king tut's tomb for the first time and granted them special access. https://t.co/DGvRWb399J
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) December 28, 2022
i'm not kidding. WaPo wasn't granted some sort of special access. pic.twitter.com/S8dRnZnLXl
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) December 28, 2022
they asked for a couple of lists, paced around the capitol, and cross referenced against publicly available info.
Exclusive! pic.twitter.com/gWOe4n37nK
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) December 28, 2022
To be fair to the Washington Post investigative team, this really is an exclusive:
learned today, from the Washington Post, that Christopher Columbus "never set foot in North America" https://t.co/OLwqo30AGQ pic.twitter.com/dZVuNQta60
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) December 28, 2022
Who knew?
Remember. These are supposedly our intellectual superiors. https://t.co/EkUCg2VE16
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) December 28, 2022
A Twitchy exclusive investigation has revealed that they are not, in fact, our intellectual superiors.
Wash. Post: "Art at Capitol honors 141 enslavers and 13 Confederates."
Methodology: "…Indigenous societies depicted in the Capitol are not included; even though some of them participated in forms of slavery…"
I guess it was just their culture… 🫤https://t.co/kJcq9MYp6j pic.twitter.com/Q9s8bYOxvG
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) December 28, 2022
Oof.
No bad day I have could possibly compare to the pain of someone waking up each day and remembering they write for the Washington Post.
— 🫃🏼🇺🇦💉Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) December 28, 2022
Always look on the bright side of life.
***
Help us keep owning the libs! Join Twitchy VIP and use promo code AMERICAFIRST to receive a 25% discount off your membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member