#nnffi

[ambicephalic]

Title:

The boys who were never told no

Origin:

The waiting room for the Massachusetts governor's office

Description:

The governor's office is filled with painted portraits of past governors. Everyone deserves dignity, but in our society dignity has been unevenly distributed, and these dead white men received much more than reasonable. The people who hold power in our world are those who were raised in privilege and grew up never being questioned or denied anything. Then we immortalize their images and treat them with great reverence. But who were these faceless men really? No doubt each one was a unique individual with all kinds of strengths and weaknesses, but what they all have in common is enormous unearned privilege, and that's the memory that their portraits preserve.

We need to stop revering some and discounting others for stupid reasons.