For their Iconic America documentary on the Statue of Liberty, PBS made sure to get plenty of perspectives on what that statue means. Unfortunately, it was a wide variety of left-wing perspectives as PBS struggled to decide whether Lady Liberty rebukes immigration enforcement or partly associates liberty with whiteness.
While the original plan for the Lady to be holding a pair of broken chains that was eventually replaced with a tablet that reads July 4, 1776. The change in plans led host David Rubenstein to ask, “Let's pretend for a moment that this was actually the version that was built where the chains symbolizing the breaking of the bonds of slavery had actually been in the left hand of the Statue of Liberty. Do you think that would have changed history in any way?”
After University of California, Santa Cruz Professor of History Tyler Stovall theorized that “it could have,” Rubenstein asked a more direct question, “As you look at the Statue of Liberty today, as an American, do you regard it as an important symbol of our country, or do you look at it as a flawed symbol of our country?”
Stovall claimed “it’s both.” He argued, “it's a symbol of the ways in which freedom has often been entangled with whiteness.”
After making clear he does not “advocate getting rid of it,” Stovall added “It's important as a symbol of everything that is intrinsically interesting about America, right, both the good sides and the bad sides. And I think the fact that it does have this multiple kinds of symbolism to it, I think is really fascinating, so, let me just say I'm glad it's there.”
Sandwiching this was another left-wing perspective. Opening the program, host David Rubenstein recalled how his parents would take him to the monument and explain to him how “The Statue of Liberty represented the story of America opening up its doors and becoming a nation of immigrants. But recently, that story has taken a turn.”
A montage of Trump-era news clips was shown including CNN’s Jim Acosta citing the monument in an argument with Stephen Miller, “The Statue of Liberty says, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
Later on in the program, more CNN anchors from the past were shown in similar montages. Wolf Blitzer was seen to be echoing the sentiment of various left-wing activists, “Cruel, inhumane, atrocious, and heartbreaking. Those are just some of the words being used to describe this immigration practice now of separating children from their parents. Adding to the outrage, pictures from inside a detention center showing some of those children housed in chain-like cages.”
Archived footage of Jim Sciutto from July 4, 2018 was also highlighted, “And there you have it. This is a protest on July 4th at the Statue of Liberty, which-- with a poem, which reads in part, "Give us your tired and poor," and that protest about immigration, ICE, family separation, et cetera.”
That activist was Patricia Okomou who told the PBS crew, “It was the 4th of July, and we were protesting the family separation that was unfair to immigrants at the Southern border.”
Okomou’s problem was with immigration enforcement’s existence, as a local reporter from NBC’s New York affiliate explained in more archived footage “It began with a group calling itself Rise and Resist, posing in T-shirts reading ‘Abolish ICE,’ then dropping a banner from the base of the statue reading the same.”
Saying the tablet is a symbol of freedom being confused for whiteness is just as silly as those who seek to reduce immigration policy in 2023 to a poem. The Statue of Liberty is great for what it is: a symbol of liberty and of Franco-American friendship, without having progressives project their politics onto it.
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Here is a transcript for the July 11 show:
PBS Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories With David Rubenstein: The Statue of Liberty
7/11/2023
10:04 PM ET
DAVID RUBENSTEIN: The Statue of Liberty represented the story of America opening up its doors and becoming a nation of immigrants. But recently, that story has taken a turn.
NORAH O’DONNELL: The battle over the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy on immigration is intensifying...
JIM ACOSTA: The Statue of Liberty says, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
STEPHEN MILLER: I don't wanna get off into a whole thing about history here, but the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of liberty enlightening the world. It's a symbol of American liberty lighting the world. The poem that you're referring to, it was added later. It's not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty.
…
RUBENSTEIN: Let's pretend for a moment that this was actually the version that was built where the chains symbolizing the breaking of the bonds of slavery had actually been in the left hand of the Statue of Liberty. Do you think that would have changed history in any way?
TYLER STOVALL: I think it could have. I think it would have made it much more difficult to exclude the idea of slave liberation from the broader American narrative of America as a land of liberty. And having a symbol so central to the United States symbolize slave liberation, as it would have done, would, I think, have placed the concerns of African-Americans much more centrally in American history.
RUBENSTEIN: As you look at the Statue of Liberty today, as an American, do you regard it as an important symbol of our country, or do you look at it as a flawed symbol of our country?
TYLER STOVALL: I think it's both. I mean, I think it is an important symbol of our country. And it's a symbol of the ways in which freedom has often been entangled with whiteness. I don't think you can-- I would certainly not advocate getting rid of it, for example, because it's a major part of American history. And the changing images of it are a major part of American history. It's certainly important to me. It's important as a symbol of everything that is intrinsically interesting about America, right, both the good sides and the bad sides. And I think the fact that it does have this multiple kinds of symbolism to it, I think is really fascinating, so, let me just say I'm glad it's there.
…
WOLF BLITZER: Cruel, inhumane, atrocious, and heartbreaking. Those are just some of the words being used to describe this immigration practice now of separating children from their parents. Adding to the outrage, pictures from inside a detention center showing some of those children housed in chain-like cages.
JIM SCIUTTO: Brynn Gingras, thank you very much. And there you have it. This is a protest on July 4th at the Statue of Liberty, which-- with a poem, which reads in part, "Give us your tired and poor," and that protest about immigration, ICE, family separation, et cetera.
PATRICIA OKOMOU: It was the 4th of July, and we were protesting the family separation that was unfair to immigrants at the Southern border.
REPORTER: It began with a group calling itself Rise and Resist, posing in T-shirts reading "Abolish ICE," then dropping a banner from the base of the statue reading the same.
OKOMOU: The message was important. It was not a joke. It was serious. There were children in cages.
