Two 70-year-old murals depicting several scenes from World War II are set to be removed from the University of Rhode Island, due to students’ complaints that it is not “diverse” enough, as reported by Breitbart.
The murals, painted by a World War II veteran and depicting several scenes, including the heroes’ welcome for returning veterans and a class reunion of veteran alumni at the university, were targeted by several far-left students who complained to the administration, due to the subjects of both murals being overwhelmingly White.
In a statement addressing the matter, Vice President of Student Affairs Kathy Collins said that she had “received complaints about the murals that portray a very homogenous population. The persons painted and depicted on the wall are predominantly White, and that does not represent who our institution is today.”
Collins even admitted that “some of our students have even shared with us that they didn’t feel comfortable sitting in that space.”
The veteran who painted the mural is 95-year-old Art Sherman, who recalled the experience of painting them. Sherman admitted that he “never had any formal education in painting,” and that he “just used to cartoon.” He said that as he was painting it, “a lot of students, friends of mine, would come by and say ‘why don’t you do this, why don’t you do that?’ So that’s what I did. So everybody chipped in.”
Responding to the complaints by leftist students that the mural was not “diverse” enough, Sherman simply said that “it depicted that era.”