Keep art available to public

Black students shouldn't have to share a classroom with the Klan. \nThe crimes of the Klan -- past and present -- are so vile that the Black community has a right to feel assaulted by white-sheeted men, even if they are an artist's image and not the real thing. \nBut…\nArt is safest locked away in someone's private collection. Saving that, stow it in a museum. Whatever you do, don't put it on public display. Keep it off the streets. Remove it from the facades of public buildings. And don't put it in a classroom.\nIf you have to throw up some public art, make sure it has no political content. Try to avoid art with an explicit message, because members of the public will find something to dislike. Even if you try sending a noble message, someone will complain.\nAnd as for those Thomas Hart Benton Murals? Get those Klansmen out of Woodburn 100, along with that little black girl in the hospital bed. Yes, she's there to commemorate the budding integration in Indiana, but tough cookies. She's part of the miserable kit-n-caboodle.\nThis is a university classroom we're talking about. Not a museum, not a private gallery and not a closet. Expurgate, eradicate or throw a velvet shroud over that painting.\nFrom Woodburn Hall to the world! Let's make this a national campaign.\nLet's get rid of the history we want to forget. Why should our dark past be on public display?\nThat Vietnam Veterans Memorial? It's right in the middle of the National Mall, reminding all the tourists of a war we lost and we're trying to win a war right now. And how about those big spotlights in New York that are nestled downtown, pointing into the night sky? Is it really necessary to pinpoint that World Trade Center mess? I'd much rather pretend it never happened. And anyway, New York is a city, not a big art museum.\nAnd neither is Woodburn 100. Let's see what happens if we can sponge away public references to Indiana's bloody Klan past, because forgetting our past means it never happened!\nOkay, I'm NOT serious. Surprise.\nI agree that Black students have reason to be upset by images of the Klan in a classroom.\nBut I have no sympathy for anyone who wants to get rid of a good piece of public art. We need controversial, political public art and public art that speaks to the darkest, bloodiest episodes in our past.\nPublic art stirs civic dialogue (have you read the opinion page lately?), it reminds people about the struggles of the oppressed, and it instills a sense that we live in a world broader than our own individual experiences.\n So don't cover it or send it away. And if we turn Woodburn 100 into a center for diversity education (which won't happen, because the University is lecture-hall hungry), then fewer people will receive an education about Indiana's bloody past. Right now, Benton's message, which is one of progress and remembrance of things past, gets the big audiences it deserves.\nThe Black community in America has a marvelous tradition of speaking truth to power. Black Americans who celebrate the memories of Martin and Malcolm understand what it means to speak truth to power. The people who take classes in Woodburn 100 may be young, and they may not be rich or famous, but they are the members of the most powerful group in the world: students. I implore the Black Student Union and the University to allow Thomas Hart Benton to continue to speak truth to power.