A Virginia resident is asking the city of Portsmouth to join cities like Baltimore and Franklin, Ohio in removing the Confederate monument in their town. He's started a petition encouraging the city to replace the statue with one of another local hero — Missy Elliott.
Nathan Coflin's petition explains, "Hailing from humble beginnings as the only child of a power company dispatcher and a welder at Portsmouth's lauded naval shipyard, she rose to become a platinum recording artist with over 30-million albums sold. All this without even once owning a slave."
Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott has won five Grammy Awards. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott has recorded music videos wearing inflated trash bags. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott is cooler than anyone could ever hope to be.
And supporters seem to agree that Elliott is a much more worthy honouree than any man who fought to uphold the slave state. As of this writing, the petition has 11,116 of the 15,000 signatures it's aiming for. Many people agree with Coflin's suggestion, as evidenced by their supportive comments. Like Sofia from Mexico, who wrote, "Missy Elliot is more important and iconic than that racist monument." Sophia from Massachusetts said, "Missy is a true American icon that needs to be preserved." And Natalia from Texas, who commented, "fuck white supremacy, make way for a queen."
Missy herself responded to the petition on Twitter, calling it "humbling" and saying it warmed her heart.
I don't know what to say🙏🏾 just to see this warms my heart and it's so humbling to me🙏🏾
— Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) August 19, 2017
With the queen herself on board, all that's left is to get the city to agree. That's what petitioners hope to do by continuing to show support for the cause.
Coflin assures supporters the cause is a worthy one. He writes, "Getting this statue put up will be a lot of work and you may ask yourself is it worth it? I say yes and ask you to join me in letting us work it. Together we can put white supremacy down, flip it and reverse it."
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