Dachshynddawg
Verified User
I was thinking about the Charlottesville incident where members of the far right (white supremacists neo-Nazis) and leftist activists (including "Antifa") faced off. With the exception of the fact one woman was killed by a speeding car (in what may or may not have been an accident) there really wasn't much violence. Most of the demonstrators at Charlottesville were just kids. Still, it was an ugly spectacle and a worry in terms of the what might be the shape of things to come. The issue was the planned removal by the local authorities of a statue of Robert E. Lee. Other statues of Confederate soldiers around America have also been ear-marked for removal, or, in fact already removed from the public domain in various locations across America. I think it is a mistake to remove these statues, but explaining why is not what I wish to do here.
My query is if the statues of "Stonewall" Jackson or Robert E. Lee are judged to be extremely offensive to African-Americans and should be promptly removed (all of them) from public display, the same logic applies to the White House and the Capitol in Washington DC. I use the White House to explain my point...
It has recently come to my attention that the labourers forced to construct the White House where overwhelmingly African-American slaves who were hired from their masters by the federal government, but received no payment for their work. Some historians have estimated that around 400 Negro slaves were put to work building the President's official residence and workplace at what is now 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC.. Although some freed African American Negros and some men of white European stock also laboured in the construction of the White House, they constituted a relatively minor proportion of the overall workforce. Washington DC was built on land ceded to the federal government by Virginia and Maryland, and at the time (in the early 1790's) the Potomac region was home to almost one half of America's 750,000 Negro slaves, so it is not surprising the Federal government decided to use them as a ready to hand workforce for the task of building the President's official residence.
It is highly probable that Negro slaves were ordered to perform the most gruelling forms of labour, including: sawing logs ans stone, digging clay for brick-making. Some slaves were forced to labour in extreme conditions ,for example, in very cold weather, or in the stone quarries in ans around Virginia. The locations have been described as "snake-infested" and "swarming with mosquitoes", and the labour so arduous that each slave was given "a half pint of whiskey" per day to help them cope with the spirit-killing work. The slaves were worked literally from dawn to dusk, six and sometimes seven days a week carrying out the back-breaking work of digging, cutting, lifting and hauling tons of stones.
Construction of the White house took place between 1792 and 1800 and it is interesting to note that of the US Presidents who occupied the Executive Mansion, seven had slaves during their time in office namely: Jefferson; Madison; Monroe; Jackson; Tyler; Polk and Taylor. Also, following the destruction of the White House in the war 1812, slave labour was again used to rebuild the Executive Mansion.
The architect who designed the White House was an Irish architect James Hoban (1755 -1831). He based his design on a Georgian-style building he planned and build in Dublin called Leinster House. Georgian Architecture has its inspiration in classical Greco-Roman antiquity. The terms Georgian, neo-classical and Palladian all refer to the same architectonic where: symmetry, mathematical proportion (the "golden mean"), simplicity, balance, regularity, subtle elegance and purity of form, the use of fluted columns (e.g Doric columns like those used in to build the temple of ancient Athens, colonnades, porticos (Palladian, see Thomas Jefferson's mansion "Monticello") The White House is a good example of a neo-classical/Palladian mansion that essentially uses the architectural devices of ancient Greece and Rome. The simple unadorned purity, simplicity and harmony of proportion we see in the White House are intended to convey a very dignified authority and I think the effect is nicely achieved. Neo-classical/Georgian architectural style is what the Landed English Aristocracy, Whig politicians (!) and the wealthy middles classes of the 18th century in Britain regarded as representing "good taste", refined aesthetic judgement. The English have never had a taste for the Baroque or Rococco in art or architecture because it is to rich, too loud, too dynamic, too sensuous, too emotionally intense, too histrionic, in short, - too vulgar and lurid. During the Georgian era and the Regency (in particular), I believe the English were trustworthy arbiters of aesthetic good taste.
The point I want to make is that the White House is a very potent symbol of white Western civilisation. Western civilisation had two fountainheads the spiritual city of Athens (i.e. ancient Greek reason/rationality) and the spiritual city of Jerusalem (i .e. faith, the Christian Church) The White house is a testimony to the timeless beauty and grandeur of Greek architecture/culture/aesthetics - its perfectly dignified authority is a delight to behold thousands of years after the ideas that inspired it were conceived. The White House and the Capitol are fitting tributes to the most advanced , sophisticated, life-affirming and objectively superior culture this world has ever known - Western Culture; the culture of the White Western European race that first began to flourished in earnest in virtue of the fertile and richly productive tension between Athens (reason) and Jerusalem (faith/the church) about 1000 years ago.
But I hear that Western Civilisation is a term of abuse among many liberals and "progressives" in America ? Why is that ? It's because Western culture and Western civilization are White European civilisation, and amongst all the other crimes that wicked, war-mongering, imperialistic, exploitative, Hydrogen-bomb -dropping White European men have perpetrated, there was the transatlantic chattel slavery trade and the transportation of countless thousands of black Africans on ships to America were they were kept in chain, cruelly mistreated and forced to labour for their masters on cotton plantations in Dixie.
How can we forebear to have the White House the official residence of the President of the USA stand one minute longer knowing it was constructed by forced Black African slaves? America is supposed to be the leader of the FREE world, how can its President - in all good conscience - reside and work in a white-painted mansion created by enslaved black men whom it denied freedom? How can we continue to allow this symbol of White, Western, cultural superiority to offend the culture of America's Black Africans ?
Well, the way I see it is that we should bulldoze the White House asap and in its place erect a monumental Black African mud hut of the kind you see in the Congo, Zimbabwe and Uganda. We could fly in expert African consultants, say half a dozen experienced pygmy architects, and learn how to erect a giant African-style mud hut with a thatched roof. These mud huts are pretty dark inside and there are no windows but I'm sure President Trump could put up with a little discomfort knowing he was doing so much to help heal the historical scars of slavery and ongoing blight of White racism in America !
Dachshund
My query is if the statues of "Stonewall" Jackson or Robert E. Lee are judged to be extremely offensive to African-Americans and should be promptly removed (all of them) from public display, the same logic applies to the White House and the Capitol in Washington DC. I use the White House to explain my point...
It has recently come to my attention that the labourers forced to construct the White House where overwhelmingly African-American slaves who were hired from their masters by the federal government, but received no payment for their work. Some historians have estimated that around 400 Negro slaves were put to work building the President's official residence and workplace at what is now 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC.. Although some freed African American Negros and some men of white European stock also laboured in the construction of the White House, they constituted a relatively minor proportion of the overall workforce. Washington DC was built on land ceded to the federal government by Virginia and Maryland, and at the time (in the early 1790's) the Potomac region was home to almost one half of America's 750,000 Negro slaves, so it is not surprising the Federal government decided to use them as a ready to hand workforce for the task of building the President's official residence.
It is highly probable that Negro slaves were ordered to perform the most gruelling forms of labour, including: sawing logs ans stone, digging clay for brick-making. Some slaves were forced to labour in extreme conditions ,for example, in very cold weather, or in the stone quarries in ans around Virginia. The locations have been described as "snake-infested" and "swarming with mosquitoes", and the labour so arduous that each slave was given "a half pint of whiskey" per day to help them cope with the spirit-killing work. The slaves were worked literally from dawn to dusk, six and sometimes seven days a week carrying out the back-breaking work of digging, cutting, lifting and hauling tons of stones.
Construction of the White house took place between 1792 and 1800 and it is interesting to note that of the US Presidents who occupied the Executive Mansion, seven had slaves during their time in office namely: Jefferson; Madison; Monroe; Jackson; Tyler; Polk and Taylor. Also, following the destruction of the White House in the war 1812, slave labour was again used to rebuild the Executive Mansion.
The architect who designed the White House was an Irish architect James Hoban (1755 -1831). He based his design on a Georgian-style building he planned and build in Dublin called Leinster House. Georgian Architecture has its inspiration in classical Greco-Roman antiquity. The terms Georgian, neo-classical and Palladian all refer to the same architectonic where: symmetry, mathematical proportion (the "golden mean"), simplicity, balance, regularity, subtle elegance and purity of form, the use of fluted columns (e.g Doric columns like those used in to build the temple of ancient Athens, colonnades, porticos (Palladian, see Thomas Jefferson's mansion "Monticello") The White House is a good example of a neo-classical/Palladian mansion that essentially uses the architectural devices of ancient Greece and Rome. The simple unadorned purity, simplicity and harmony of proportion we see in the White House are intended to convey a very dignified authority and I think the effect is nicely achieved. Neo-classical/Georgian architectural style is what the Landed English Aristocracy, Whig politicians (!) and the wealthy middles classes of the 18th century in Britain regarded as representing "good taste", refined aesthetic judgement. The English have never had a taste for the Baroque or Rococco in art or architecture because it is to rich, too loud, too dynamic, too sensuous, too emotionally intense, too histrionic, in short, - too vulgar and lurid. During the Georgian era and the Regency (in particular), I believe the English were trustworthy arbiters of aesthetic good taste.
The point I want to make is that the White House is a very potent symbol of white Western civilisation. Western civilisation had two fountainheads the spiritual city of Athens (i.e. ancient Greek reason/rationality) and the spiritual city of Jerusalem (i .e. faith, the Christian Church) The White house is a testimony to the timeless beauty and grandeur of Greek architecture/culture/aesthetics - its perfectly dignified authority is a delight to behold thousands of years after the ideas that inspired it were conceived. The White House and the Capitol are fitting tributes to the most advanced , sophisticated, life-affirming and objectively superior culture this world has ever known - Western Culture; the culture of the White Western European race that first began to flourished in earnest in virtue of the fertile and richly productive tension between Athens (reason) and Jerusalem (faith/the church) about 1000 years ago.
But I hear that Western Civilisation is a term of abuse among many liberals and "progressives" in America ? Why is that ? It's because Western culture and Western civilization are White European civilisation, and amongst all the other crimes that wicked, war-mongering, imperialistic, exploitative, Hydrogen-bomb -dropping White European men have perpetrated, there was the transatlantic chattel slavery trade and the transportation of countless thousands of black Africans on ships to America were they were kept in chain, cruelly mistreated and forced to labour for their masters on cotton plantations in Dixie.
How can we forebear to have the White House the official residence of the President of the USA stand one minute longer knowing it was constructed by forced Black African slaves? America is supposed to be the leader of the FREE world, how can its President - in all good conscience - reside and work in a white-painted mansion created by enslaved black men whom it denied freedom? How can we continue to allow this symbol of White, Western, cultural superiority to offend the culture of America's Black Africans ?
Well, the way I see it is that we should bulldoze the White House asap and in its place erect a monumental Black African mud hut of the kind you see in the Congo, Zimbabwe and Uganda. We could fly in expert African consultants, say half a dozen experienced pygmy architects, and learn how to erect a giant African-style mud hut with a thatched roof. These mud huts are pretty dark inside and there are no windows but I'm sure President Trump could put up with a little discomfort knowing he was doing so much to help heal the historical scars of slavery and ongoing blight of White racism in America !
Dachshund
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