I walk past the George Washington statue preceding Red Square at least twice a week. Granted, I’ve only attended UW on-campus for a year (shoutout Zoom University) but I can’t recall seeing the statue in an unvandalized state more than once, when it was temporarily taped off in fall quarter. Since then, I’ve watched as graffiti tags, slurs, calls to action, and even poetry appear on the memorial’s base fixture overnight only to get painstakingly removed in a ceaseless cycle of rebellion. Some of the labels that have stuck with me: “slavemaster,” “only worth a dollar,” “how do slave teeth taste?” “abortion 4 all,” and most recently (and perhaps most endearingly) “I love gay porn.” And that’s just what I’ve seen with my own two eyes – a 2020 article from Real Change Seattle documents George covered from tip to toe in uncannily “bloody” red paint.
I pity the custodians assigned to clearing the statue’s never-ending graffiti. You can tell how many times it’s been vandalized and washed and painted and vandalized again; how much money is UW funneling into the isolated rehabilitation of an already controversial statue?
After some research, I learned that George’s stony likeness is a product of the early twentieth century, when UW hosted the Alaska-Ukon-Pacific Exhibition world’s fair. The same event brought us Rainier Vista and Drumheller Fountain. America’s first president has guarded Red Square for over a century, but what exactly does he symbolize? When I pass him on the way to class, I don’t think about George Washington’s historic heroism or the stoic glory of the statue itself. I think about how embarrassing it is that UW would rather let it get defaced on the daily than relocate it to a museum, where its meaning would be far less equivocal. I was once a shy high schooler in a UW tour group, and I wonder how the piece is perceived by incoming students and their parents. Do they admire our university’s namesake? Are they angry that one of the most beautiful and frequented parts of campus lies in the shadow of a slaveowner? Seattle is bursting with graffiti, which can intimidate outsiders. Maybe it’s construed as dangerous: can Seattle and UW really protect students if they can’t even protect an inanimate statue from constant vandalism?
George brings us together, in a way. We’re here because of him, in the literal sense that our school and state are named Washington. Just the other day, I walked past a handful of students gathered around him, chuckling and snapping photos of his newfound affinity for gay porn. He’s part of the UW experience, for better or worse. Should a slaveowner and colonizer hover, larger than life, on a 24-foot pedestal over a public, liberal university? Probably not. But it doesn’t seem like UW administration has much to say about it.