"Liberty Enlightening The World" or more popularly "The Statue of Liberty" has become the single most iconic symbol of the United States of America that I can think of.
The flag, the stars and stripes certainly gets its myriad uses, but often is subject to the whims of the politics of the day. The Statue of Liberty is more hopeful, more about the absolute ideals rather than the realities of American politics, in fact the Statue is not about the United States at all really but about the aspirations of the nation which holds possibilities for the world itself. The Statue which sits on Liberty Island (once Bedloe's Island - renamed one year before my birth) has been used by artists for as long as it has existed as a quick symbol of the U.S. and civilization itself. Popular culture seized on this and has made quite a bit of use of it, specifically pulp magazines and comics. Here are some examples from across the decades.
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And "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses..." isn't a very popular sentiment now either. You've got Donald Trump while here in Britain we are enduring the post-"Brexit" chaos - every racist and bigot is now crawling out of the woodwork and thinks they are free to tell any foreigner to "pack your bags and go" with black people being called n*ggers to their face and Poles being called "vermin" - the whole Brexit campaign was based on xenophobia and fear of being swamped by immigrants. But now the Brexit politicians are desperately trying to retract the things they promised, there probably won't be big reductions in immigration after all - but they've opened a Pandora's box of xenophobia which will be difficult to close.
ReplyDeleteThat's what Trump has unleashed here, win or lose. I suspect he'll lose ultimately, but the flaccid way some of his more strident howls have been absorbed into the conversation makes bigots bolder. "Political correctness" is a pretty plastic phrase here now, but it often is code for raw bigotry. It's a true shame.
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I think it's worth pointing out that people's concerns over immigration in Britain don't all spring from racism, although obviously there is an element of that among some sections of the Brexit vote. As for America, well I won't presume to speak on something beyond my experience, except to say that some of those who are seen as victims of racism are often quite racist themselves towards others - and that happens in a lot of countries. However, well done on your cover research, Rip. I imagine it must have taken you ages. How many (if any) would you guess you'd missed?
ReplyDeleteI've missed a few. Whenever I do one of these, I usually find another I hadn't known to look for. In fact the Unknown Soldier cover in this gallery was a last minute addition I stumbled on only this week.
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