Here’s what the descendants of famous Americans look like posing as their ancestors
A British photographer found descendants of historical leaders like Thomas Jefferson and Frederick Douglass for a photo project.Also in this week’s issue:
What Biden’s latest Spanish-language ads tell us about his strategy
I regret to inform you someone torched the iconic statue of Melania in Slovenia
Here’s how many confederate monuments remain in the U.S.
Yours,
What Biden’s latest Spanish-language ads tell us about his strategy
Credit: Joe Biden/YouTube
The Biden campaign has been criticized for not doing enough to reach out to Latino voters, but it’s recently begun making moves with a slate of new hires and Spanish-language advertising.
One ad titled “Cacerolazo,” a Spanish term for a protest in which demonstrators bang pots and pans, includes audio of pots and pans being banged along with Trump quotes about his handling of the virus and protests. The ad shows images of police brutality then cuts to a list of Latin American autocrats — Fidel, Chávez, and Maduro — followed by Trump. It ends with the phrase “Caudillos de la misma tela,” or “Leaders of the same cloth.”
Another ad, “Cuentas,” has different, shortened versions of the ad running on Facebook with different voiceovers depending on the state. According to Politico, ads in Phoenix and Tucson use a narrator with a Mexican accent, in Miami it’s a Cuban accent, and in Orlando and Tampa it’s a Puerto Rican accent.
Latino voters are expected to make up 13.3% of the electorate this year, which would make them the largest racial or ethnic minority in a presidential election for the first time. These ads, with their references to Latin American strongmen and multiple accents, seem much more targeted to naturalized citizens than to all Latino voters at large, which would make sense. A 2019 Pew analysis of Hispanic voters found those who are naturalized citizens were more likely to vote than those who were U.S. born.
I regret to inform you someone torched the iconic statue of Melania in Slovenia
A wooden statue of first lady Melania Trump in Sevnica, Slovenia, has been removed after it was set on fire on the Fourth of July.
The statue was cut using a chainsaw by Slovenian folk artist Aleš Župev and it was famous for its… unusual… depiction of FLOTUS’ face that some thought was meant as a parody.
Brad Downey, an American artist who lives in Europe, commissioned the statue in 2018. He told ABC News he filed a police report so an investigation could be launched but he only wants to talk with the arsonists, not press charges against them.
“I would want to know who are they and why they did it,” he said.
A wooden statue of President Trump in Moravce, Slovenia, was burned down in January.
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Here’s how many confederate monuments remain in the U.S.
Credit: FiveThirtyEight
While confederate monuments across the country are being taken down, data collected by FiveThirtyEight shows it’s barely a dent in the overall number.
There are still more than 700 monuments or statues that remain up, and since 2015, just more than 80 statues or monuments have actually been removed or relocated.
At least 26 monuments or statues have been taken down in 2020 so far, which is more than any other year except 2017 when 36 were taken down.
Cuomo’s latest poster is a lot
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is a fan of late-1800s-style political poster art and he loves designing his own. His latest, titled “New York Tough,” is meant to tell the story of the state’s Covid crisis.
There’s details like the “winds of fear,” President Trump sitting on the moon next to the words “it’s just a flu,” and a man dangling off an edge labeled “boyfriend cliff.” My favorite part is the smiling sun 🌞. They’re being sold at cost for $14.50.
“What if somebody said, ‘OK, no words. Paint me a picture that paints me a story of what you’re trying to say,’” Cuomo said at his Monday press conference. “That’s poster art.”
At least one local lawmaker took issue with the poster. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D) tweeted, “I mean this with 0% snark: how is this not wildly offensive? This is an artful monument to death and tragedy being sold by the state. I’m legit perplexed.”
Here’s what the descendants of famous Americans look like posing as their ancestors
Credit: via Smithsonian
British photographer Drew Gardner said he wanted to explore race, ancestry, and American history in a photo series of the descendants of famous Americans. His subjects include Shannon LaNier (above), the great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, a woman Jefferson enslaved.
Gardner had already done similar photographs in Europe of the descendants of people like Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles Dickens, and wanted to try a similar project in the U.S. that would challenge the idea that American history is white and male, he said.
“For all its travails, America is the most brilliant idea,” he told Smithsonian magazine.
Credit: via Smithsonian
It’s so interesting seeing the similarities and differences between people and their ancestors. Kenneth Morris, the great-great-great-grandson of Frederick Douglass, said he’s been told his whole life that he looks like Douglass, and after putting on the wig and looking at himself in the mirror, “it was like I was Frederick Douglass.”
Meanwhile, Jefferson descendent LaNier said he purposefully didn’t want to wear a colonial-era wig.
“I didn’t want to become Jefferson,” he said. “My ancestor had his dreams—and now it’s up to all of us living in America today to make sure no one is excluded from the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Gardner also photographed Elizabeth Jenkins-Sahlin, who’s a descendant of abolitionist and women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Biden's new campaign typefaces are a pivot to the general election
ICYMI, I wrote about the Biden campaign rolling out two new typefaces and what it says about the move from the primary campaign to the general election. You can read my story here.