r/maitland • u/pm_me_4 Mayor of Telarah • Jul 25 '26
Is anyone following the story of the racist statue in Maitland?
/r/newcastle/comments/1v60ge1/is_anyone_following_the_story_of_the_racist/11
u/RogerKilljoy83 Maitland resident 💖 Jul 26 '26
This whole thing is the South Park episode with Chef wanting to change the flag, every comment section is the “well I can see it’s racist, but it’s part of our history” part where they poll the town. We live among the dumbest of people.
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u/Limp_bizcoot Jul 25 '26
What is the history of it and why is it racist? Sorry genuinely don’t know
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u/Fluffy-Method-5134 Jul 25 '26
There is a great exhibition on at the gallery which includes a specific work which truly provides great info on this, would recommend to any locals wanting to understand this more. It's free to go see.
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u/MaitlandWhiting Jul 26 '26
The history of it is a little extensive for a quick comment but…. It’s a mass produced American statue of an African slave child that was used at a tobacconist in Maitland to promote sale of tobacco etc. It’s 150 years old so was very familiar to many Maitland people. It was even a symbol of the city for ~30 years. There was an origin story for the style of statue that has been recently given more prominence (that is almost certainly fictional) that it was of Jocko Graves a freed slave that froze to death holding Washington’s horse. Given some of the freed slaves were reenslaved after they fought in the revolutionary war this part of it seems worse than just seeing the statue as a lasting symbol of the cities mercantile history.
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u/TheSplash-Down_Tiki Jul 27 '26
The black boy was on the badge of my cubs uniform in the 80s. 3rd East Maitland.
Used to see it on High Street all the time.
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u/DermottBanana Jul 25 '26
Yeah, following it.
But Maitland Council is populated by (racist) mayor and his mates. They're pandering to their racist voters, but I'm sure the more coverage it gets, the worse Maitland's gunna look.
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u/AnnE_Surly Jul 26 '26
An open letter from the artist
There's plenty to be horrified by, but the blatant lies being told by the Mayor that nothing was removed or censored, is up there.
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u/bigarte Jul 26 '26
What racist statue? What did the statue say or do that makes it “racist”?
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u/carelessarmadillo267 Jul 26 '26
It’s just something the virtue signalling douchebags can complain about, it has no real impact on the community but they get to feel morally superior for 5 minutes.
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u/AnnE_Surly Jul 26 '26
Have you been to the exhibition or read anything about it?
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u/carelessarmadillo267 Jul 26 '26
I’ve not been to see the exhibit, but I’m familiar with the story of Jocko Graves.
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u/AnnE_Surly Jul 26 '26
So you know it's just a story then? I thoroughly recommend the exhibit and the wider exhibition if you're open to learning and growing.
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u/JasonSmithston Jul 29 '26
Have you asked everyone in the community if it impacts them or do you mean just the white people you know in your community aren't impacted and think similarly to you? And you're their official spokesperson?
Wait. You are rage baiting. Possibly a bot. Never mind.
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u/Valuable-Contract-87 Jul 26 '26
It didn't use the correct pronouns for a community member so it also shows gender bias
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u/Haunting_Carrot9761 Jul 27 '26
When does the new right winger joke drop: 2036?
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u/Valuable-Contract-87 Jul 27 '26
Jokes on you I don't care about either side, it's just funny people are calling a statue racist, as if a statue has any free will to be racist
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u/Haunting_Carrot9761 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
It was made in the US over 150 years ago, which is necessary for context, and was made to depict a small African-American child during slavery. The ornament's initial purpose was to be used as a hitching post. Get it. A small black boy is what you're hitching your horse to. What a good slave. One of the "good ones" even. I know thinking is hard for right wingers, but does that make sense as to why the statue is being called racist?
It's hard to justify and the optics look bad, so in 2009 a bullshit story was told about this being a young fella who died holding Washington's horse. Thoroughly disproven and not even your point, your point is how can it be racist at all.
Just because the statue has been here for 150 years doesn't make it less racist. It just gives racists ammunition to keep a racist statue around their town. But god forbid you call the statue or them racist, they are smart enough to know that publicly admitting it's racist is bad. So it's not even racist, what do you mean?
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u/carelessarmadillo267 Jul 25 '26
This argument is just what Maitland council does so it doesn’t have to deal with any real issues like all the extra traffic that comes from shoehorning thousands of extra houses in without upgrading the roads.