“A Symbol of Imperial Violence and Colonialism”: Activists at UPenn Deface Statue of Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin once wrote “Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.” Yet, Franklin might be a bit confused by his critics at the University of Pennsylvania. Anti-Israel activists vandalized his statue as a symbol of colonialism. The man who was instrumental in the Declaration of Independence against the British Empire is being denounced as an “imperial” colonizing figure. Franklin would likely fess up to any number of “faults” over the excesses of his personal life, but being an imperial colonizer would not be one of them. Indeed, he was estranged from his son, William Franklin (right), who was the last Royal Governor of New Jersey.

Nevertheless, the group Up Against the Occupation, or (u)PAO, posted pictures to Instagram of defacing the statue with red paint. The group called the statue “a symbol of imperial violence and colonialism.”

The red paint was meant to be a “visual reminder of the over 186,000 martyrs and the university’s complicity in genocide.” They also objected that “the University has tried to supress [sic] the student intifada, supressing [sic] Palestinian voices, all in the name of ‘campus safety.’ There are NO Universities left in Gaza. There are NO first days. The education system of Gaza has been systematically destroyed, and the genocide has only expanded.”

This is the Benjamin Franklin who noted in Paris that “It is a common observation here (Paris) that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own.” That does not quite sound like a supporter of imperial colonial ambitions.

The “colonizer” accusation is reminiscent of the ahistorical objections to GW being called the “Colonials.”

Franklin was a loyal British citizen but then, like many, came to support the cause of “independency.”

He was also not an advocate of violence. This was the figure who declared “May we never see another War! for in my Opinion there never was a good War, or a bad Peace.”

And now for a singing Franklin to wipe away the memory of radicals defacing the statue of one of the greatest American figures in history: