I went downtown this past weekend to see the progress being made with all the renovations when I saw this banner hanging between W. Main an W. Parrish streets on the wall that faces the old CCB building. (Click on the banner to see a larger version.)
While there are a few legitimate civil-rights heroes, politicians, writers and legendary jazz musicians on this banner, most of the names are of certified criminals, Black Panther Party members killed in police shootouts, Marxist black nationalists, Pan-Africanists and poets and authors, many of whose works can fairly be called anti-white.
None of these 45 people is white, but there are a couple of Hispanics and one Chinese-American anti-white activist, so I guess that qualifies as diversity. While someone might make a case (however unconvincing) for a lot of these names to be included, there is simply no case to be made for Ho Chi Minh and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, two communist mass murderers whom the left sees romantically as freedom fighters.
My question is: Who made this thing and who authorized its hanging? It seems to violate any sign ordinance that Durham may have in force. Did the City Council actually agree that this was a good thing to hang in a downtown that is trying to remake itself after years of sad decay? A lot is going on, as our visit revealed. It’s pretty exciting. But this banner might as well say: “White People Not Welcome Here.”
