Althouse: "If Mnuchin actually cared about accurately depicting American values on our currency there would be no need to now 'consider' Tubman’s face on the $20 bill."

September 12, 2017

"If Mnuchin actually cared about accurately depicting American values on our currency there would be no need to now 'consider' Tubman’s face on the $20 bill."

"Instead we would discuss how we could elevate even more abolitionists, racial equality advocates, suffragettes and civil rights champions on our money."

Writes Barrett Holmes Pitner in The Daily Beast.

90 comments:

Gahrie said...: Yeah...because Ben Franklin, U.S. Grant, Andrew Jackson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, John Kennedy, and Franklin Roosevelt have absolutely nothing to do with American values.; 9/12/17, 9:48 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Really, can we just start the killing? What's the fucking point anymore?; 9/12/17, 9:50 AM
rhhardin said...: Our black foremothers.; 9/12/17, 9:51 AM
rhhardin said...: Currency with negative value would be a good compromise.; 9/12/17, 9:51 AM
rhhardin said...: Negative value currency would be a good way to avoid raising the debt ceiling.

Just create a negative dollar every time you create a dollar.

Quantum entanglement would prevent forgery.; 9/12/17, 9:53 AM
rhhardin said...: Currency would work like collateralized debt obligations.; 9/12/17, 9:55 AM
mockturtle said...: Appeasement doesn't work. It has never worked.; 9/12/17, 9:55 AM
rhhardin said...: Gradually raise the proportion of welfare payments paid in negative currency.; 9/12/17, 9:56 AM
rhhardin said...: Bikini babes would look good on currency.; 9/12/17, 9:58 AM
Sydney said...: It is never enough; 9/12/17, 10:00 AM
rhhardin said...: Appeasement on the pot
Nine days old; 9/12/17, 10:02 AM
Tank said...: I would like to see Melania Trump on the currency, or anywhere.; 9/12/17, 10:03 AM
Todd said...: Some nice "history" is presented but the article is nearly destroyed with this bit of leftist fantasy: The Trump administration and its supporters are waging a war on America’s fact-based history, so one would be naïve to expect Mnuchin to break ranks.

It is not the Trump administration that is tearing down historic monuments and statues. It is not the Trump administration that is destroying the country's history of supporting free speech. It is not the Trump administration that denies the country's history of the 2A. It is not the Trump administration that is white-washing the sordid past of the Clintons. What "history" is the Trump administration denying? The author [as is typical] does not bother to say.; 9/12/17, 10:03 AM
rhhardin said...: Larry Flynt would be good. He made the porn internet possible. Huge impact.

The trick was overcoming the postal code.; 9/12/17, 10:05 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: Tubman displayed incredible individual courage and bravery at great personal risk to herself.

That does not mean she should be on the $20 bill.

That honor should be reserved for our first female president, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Chautauqua Glass Ceiling Smasher. Even if she didn't technically win it is her turn so let's just get on with it.; 9/12/17, 10:05 AM
dbp said...: If there were one LOL for every atom in the universe, it would be too few for this article.; 9/12/17, 10:06 AM
Hagar said...: He does realize that all those abolitionists were Republicans,right?; 9/12/17, 10:06 AM
tcrosse said...: Hillary would be good on a postage stamp, now that we no longer have to lick them.; 9/12/17, 10:07 AM
cubanbob said...: How about changing the motto from In God We Trust to it ain't yours baby, we're just pretending to let you keep some of it. Since we are sliding into progressive-ism just put Marx or some other Communist's portrait on the bill.; 9/12/17, 10:07 AM
rhhardin said...: Elie Tahari, inventor of the tube top, would be good.; 9/12/17, 10:08 AM
Nonapod said...: America has a national currency due only to the Civil War—that is, only because 11 states broke off to fight for slavery.

For that assertion to hold water one would have to assume that there's no other feasible reason for America to want a national currency. That seems to be a pretty big assumption.; 9/12/17, 10:08 AM
rhhardin said...: Lena Nyman, star of I Am Curious (Yellow). Important cultural art breast.; 9/12/17, 10:11 AM
Hagar said...: The way things are going, Carlo Ponzi, Bernie Madoff, et al., may be most appropriate!; 9/12/17, 10:11 AM
Michael K said...: When I see these racialist articles, I always look for a photo of the author, just as I do when reading about a crime committed.

It is almost always explanatory.; 9/12/17, 10:13 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: Whenever the Left yammers about "racial equality", I always want to ask, "What about "hard-work equality" or "ambition equality?" or "thrift equality?"

There are certain "inequalities" the Left tends to avoid like the flu.

The folks who built this republic and the capitalist system underpinning it created more peace and wealth the world has ever seen. Yes, some folks got left behind. But no system is perfect. So, I affirmatively want Washington, Franklin et al on our currency. The Left can make up their own Monopoly money and put Jesse Jackson, Magaret Sanger and Harvey Milk on it,; 9/12/17, 10:14 AM
Michael K said...: "He does realize that all those abolitionists were Republicans,right?"

Of course not. And Lincoln was a Democrat.; 9/12/17, 10:15 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Why do liberal priorities always become the country's hot issues? Especially when so many of their ideas are dumb and/or pointless virtue signaling......i.e. Obamacare architect Senator Tom Daschle says it is time for single payer...sure let's do what this idiot designer of an abomination of a govt health plan Obamacare thinks is the next great idea.; 9/12/17, 10:16 AM
Jupiter said...: And if Barret Holmes Pittner actually cared about accurately depicting his own value, he would have his ass tattooed on his face. And his face tattooed on his ass.; 9/12/17, 10:17 AM
David said...: "The Trump administration and its supporters are waging a war on America’s fact-based history, so one would be naïve to expect Mnuchin to break ranks."

I don't think advocates of the change should want too much fact based history when dealing with Harriet Tubman. Both her contemporary importance and her actual deeds are significantly exaggerated in most popular accounts.

Particularly supporters of this change from the left might wonder why replacing a racist democratic president with a black Republican female abolitionist on the $20 bill is to their advantage.

There are myths and exaggerations surrounding every person pictured on our currency. I suggest that there is no reason why it should be any different with Tubman.; 9/12/17, 10:29 AM
Anonymous said...: Bad Lieutenant: Really, can we just start the killing? What's the fucking point anymore?

I know that feel, bro.

Love the scare quotes around 'consider', a mental process for which we now have no need. Just STFU, because EQWALITEE.; 9/12/17, 10:31 AM
gspencer said...: Do you have change for a Tubbie?; 9/12/17, 10:38 AM
Dude1394 said...: We need to get rid of all faces on all money. I am offended by them all.; 9/12/17, 10:43 AM
rcocean said...: Abe Lincoln and US Grant ended slavery, the abolitionists didn't. People forget the abolitionists ran a 3rd party candidate against Lincoln in 1864, and had it been more successful, would've thrown the election to McClellan.

Similarly, Susan b. Anthony didn't do squat. Need a woman on the currency? Put Lou Hoover, Ann Murrow Lindbergh, Clare Booth Luce or Phyllis Schlafly on the $20 dollar bill.

You want to make the currency better? Get rid of the penny and nickel.; 9/12/17, 10:47 AM
rcocean said...: Need a black on the currency? Use Booker T. Washington or George Washington Carver.; 9/12/17, 10:49 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: If it needs to be a black woman then let it be Halle Berry.

White men have masturbated to Halle Berry.

I don't think many white men have masturbated to Harriet Tubman.

I am Laslo.; 9/12/17, 10:49 AM
Anonymous said...: AJ Lynch: Why do liberal priorities always become the country's hot issues?

Because everyone else has spent the last 50 years acting like those candy-ass adults who won't put the hammer down on a spoiled toddler's endless demands because they're terrified of setting off a temper tantrum? Because everyone else has been a bunch of sniveling, easily-bullied cucks who can be oh-so-easily kept in line by threats of accusations of "racist!" or the like?

Because everyone else has weak minds and weak wills and still cringeingly accepts the left's frame for everything, no matter how stupid and dishonest, and the left's priorities, regardless of how ever-more-insane they're becoming?

Because we're sitting here discussing this ignorant punk's droolings as if they're worth an intelligent citizen's attention?

Just a thought.; 9/12/17, 10:51 AM
etbass said...: We now worship blacks in this country. All other images, monuments, and statues are idolatry. All must be to honor, worship and praise blacks.; 9/12/17, 10:52 AM
Fernandinande said...: Writes Barrett Holmes Pitner in The Daily Beast.

I think I'm getting pretty accurate about identifying the race of editorial authors before peeking, though it's not difficult because blacks almost never write about anything other than race and being black, Sowell being (an/the only?) exception.; 9/12/17, 11:05 AM
rcocean said...: "Why do liberal priorities always become the country's hot issues?"

Plus, they control the Media and always move in a herd. Read the NYT/WaPo and then see the same stories from the same angle on CBSABCNBCCNNPBSMSNBCNPR and every other liberal magazine and newspaper.

The WSJ reporters are upset at their Editor because he wants them to be different than the WapO/NYT in covering Trump. The editor wants them more objective - which made them very upset..; 9/12/17, 11:06 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: So....if we do this....Put Harriet Tubman on some paper money will they finally shut up and leave us alone. NO? Then fuck 'em. I'm with Bad Lieutenant. Let's just get this over with.; 9/12/17, 11:07 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: I don't think many white men have masturbated to Harriet Tubman.

I am Laslo.

Challenge accepted!

JK...chicks with TBIs is a limit for me.; 9/12/17, 11:24 AM
Todd said...: Bad, they can't out-right start the killing yet. You MUST be made to care first. You must be made to believe you earned it. They believe 1984 is a how-to guide.; 9/12/17, 11:24 AM
Balfegor said...: No, we would put images of great American scientists and inventors on our currency. I would say "great artists and literary figures" too, but we, ah, don't really have all that many of those. Scientists and inventors, though -- we have them in spades.; 9/12/17, 11:40 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: we would put images of great American scientists and inventors on our currency. I would say "great artists and literary figures" too,

Scientists and inventors I agree with. Art...meh....it is in the eye of the beholder. What some people think is great art, others consider to be horrid. There is no denying the brilliance (pun intended) of the invention of the electric light bulb and the change that made in our society.; 9/12/17, 11:42 AM
Known Unknown said...: Tubman is pretty awesome, so I have no problem with her presence on the twenty. Only, however, if they illustrate her with her sidearms.; 9/12/17, 11:46 AM
John Nowak said...: I'm fine with replacing a founder of the Democratic Party with an armed Republican.; 9/12/17, 11:58 AM
mikeski said...: Laslo Spatula said...

[...]to Harriet Tubman.

The Althousian personification of Rule 34 says this? I believe it not!; 9/12/17, 12:00 PM
Henry said...: If we're going to represent American values -- rather than American people -- I think a picture of money on our money would be a good.; 9/12/17, 12:03 PM
Henry said...: choice; 9/12/17, 12:08 PM
Darrell said...: Put mirror-quality Mylar in the portrait space of a $20 bill. That way we can all be on it.; 9/12/17, 12:15 PM
buwaya said...: They should put a picture of Christopher Columbus on the $20.

Stick it up them harder.; 9/12/17, 12:18 PM
Michael K said...: "They should put a picture of Christopher Columbus on the $20. "

I'll vote for that.

Too few know that Rosa Parks, of the bus boycott fame, was a NAACP activist, not an innocent bus rider.; 9/12/17, 12:23 PM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: And Lincoln was a Democrat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9L4UrVm8Cg; 9/12/17, 12:27 PM
n.n said...: Or, in progressive terms: color diversity, a.k.a. racism. Also, the operators of the Democratic Party's abortion chambers and Mengele clinics.; 9/12/17, 12:32 PM
Static Ping said...: While greenbacks began flooding the market, American banking remained largely decentralized and states continued to issue their own currency.

Really? I was under the impression that state currency basically went away with the establishment of the Constitution. Looking up prices for coins, I do not see anything for state coinage after the 1790s. Now, I do know that currency was a bit of a mess before the Civil War with U.S. coins, foreign coins, bank notes (technically not currency), and various forms of barter all in effect, but I believe this statement is false. I do not know enough about the history of U.S currency to know for sure and a quick set of searches was inconclusive, but this seems dubious. The Civil War did establish U.S paper money "greenbacks."

In other words, America has a national currency due only to the Civil War...

This I know is false. U.S. coins were in circulation by the 1790s at the latest. Coins are currency. Whether they were the national currency in the sense that everyone used them is another question. It was gold and silver and copper and most people would take those things.

Tubman and other abolitionists — both black and white — should be on our money because without their efforts we wouldn’t even have our money, let alone our nation.

This makes no sense. You could write an entire thesis on how this makes no sense.

I have no issue of putting Tubman on the currency. Who is honored on currency is allowed to change over time so there is no need to always retain the same ones. Nevertheless, this article is dumb.; 9/12/17, 12:35 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: I also don't object to Tubman being honored on something, even on some currency. The issue is that this gesture will not stop the progression of destroying history, denigrating historical figures from hundreds of years ago because they were/are white and because society was different then, demanding reparations, demanding that people of the present whose ancestors were not even IN the Americas at the time should be punished because....racism or something.

As Mockturtle wisely said, appeasement never works. In fact, it makes things worse.

This will never end... or more accurately will never end well.; 9/12/17, 12:37 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Why should Mnuchin care? Seriously.; 9/12/17, 1:09 PM
Henry said...: Too few know that Rosa Parks, of the bus boycott fame, was a NAACP activist, not an innocent bus rider.

You realize that it's possible she was both? The NAACP challenged unjust Jim Crow laws. Rosa Parks put herself physically and legally at risk. It was an heroic act. I fail to see the point of your distinction.; 9/12/17, 1:27 PM
William said...: Money is nearly obsolete. I only use it to make small purchases at the produce stand. Sometimes I go two or three days without actually using it........Maybe Chase could offer a credit card with Tubman's face on it. Apple could call their new model The Tubman. Why fight over who inherits the saddle. You're riding a dead horse...........I don't think there would have been a Union to preserve were it not for Jackson's decisive actions as President. Democrats used to celebrate Jefferson, Jackson, and Wilson as the pillars of their party. What other things are they mistaken about?; 9/12/17, 1:42 PM
Sigivald said...: "Instead we would discuss how we could elevate even more abolitionists, racial equality advocates, suffragettes and civil rights champions on our money."

Why would that be the only way to reflect American Values (tm) on the currency?

It's a currently fashionable mode of expression, true. And those sets of people do, generally, express American Values*.

Why not thinkers and theorists who expressed American Ideals?

(I'd put Hayek on the dollar, just to see metallist heads explode...)

(* Generally because some so-called "civil rights activists" bitterly oppose American Values, but that's another issue.); 9/12/17, 1:51 PM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: Too few know that Rosa Parks, of the bus boycott fame, was a NAACP activist, not an innocent bus rider.

You realize that it's possible she was both? The NAACP challenged unjust Jim Crow laws. Rosa Parks put herself physically and legally at risk. It was an heroic act. I fail to see the point of your distinction.

The NAACP had been looking for someone to be the public face of its campaign to challenge Jim Crow. A couple of people had refused to go to the back of the bus before Parks, but for various reasons they were deemed unsuitable to front the campaign. Parks, who worked for the NAACP as a secretary, refused to give up her seat and it was decided that she met the criteria, the criteria being nothing even remotely scandalous or even unusual in her background. The NAACP wanted someone completely sympathetic.; 9/12/17, 2:03 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Balfegor,

" I would say "great artists and literary figures" too, but we, ah, don't really have all that many of those."

Well, ok, how about Jimi? There's your great artist and your african-american all at once.; 9/12/17, 2:05 PM
tcrosse said...: To demonstrate truly American values on the currency, we should sell the rights to appear on money. Movie stars, political figures, and publicity whores with money to spend could have their pictures on the bills of their choice. Imagine a wallet full of Kardashians.; 9/12/17, 2:07 PM
John Nowak said...: I've got to agree with Henry above. Barring some narrative shifting changes to the story (e.g., Parks was actually arrested for threatening the driver with a gun or something like that) then she was engaged in a perfectly appropriate bit of civil disobedience. That remains true if she was in the NAACP, ASPCA, or NSDAP.); 9/12/17, 2:07 PM
Michael K said...: "You realize that it's possible she was both? The NAACP challenged unjust Jim Crow laws. Rosa Parks put herself physically and legally at risk. It was an heroic act. I fail to see the point of your distinction."

It is that her legend is not totally true. You can complain but the fact remains it was planned. I have no brief for the laws she violated and I certainly am no fan for segregation, no matter how much it is making a comeback among black college students.

The truth is the truth.; 9/12/17, 2:19 PM
John Nowak said...: It is that her legend is not totally true. You can complain but the fact remains it was planned.

I think we're in agreement.; 9/12/17, 2:29 PM
ga6 said...: "Manila John Basilone"; 9/12/17, 2:51 PM
MayBee said...: Obama was president for 8 whole years, right?; 9/12/17, 2:56 PM
Henry said...: I must have heard the wrong legend. Everything I learned about the civil rights movement made it clear that civil disobedience was undertaken with full knowledge of the law and the consequences of breaking it.; 9/12/17, 3:14 PM
Etienne said...: All these people bitching about who's face is on fiat money, should be taken to gas chambers and their bodies used to generate electricity.

God bless.; 9/12/17, 3:17 PM
mockturtle said...: Henry suggests: If we're going to represent American values -- rather than American people -- I think a picture of money on our money would be a good choice.

Or maybe the little Monopoly man.; 9/12/17, 3:21 PM
mockturtle said...: If it needs to be a black woman then let it be Halle Berry.

White men have masturbated to Halle Berry.

I don't think many white men have masturbated to Harriet Tubman.

I am Laslo.

I get your point, Laslo, but we don't really want people masturbating into our currency, do we? Blech!; 9/12/17, 3:23 PM
Fritz said...: AJ Lynch said...
Why do liberal priorities always become the media's hot issues? Especially when so many of their ideas are dumb and/or pointless virtue signaling......i.e. Obamacare architect Senator Tom Daschle says it is time for single payer...sure let's do what this idiot designer of an abomination of a govt health plan Obamacare thinks is the next great idea.
Fixed it for you. Once you do that, the answer is self evident.; 9/12/17, 3:37 PM
Fabi said...: "...but we don't really want people masturbating into our currency, do we?"

For Chuck's sake, let's pray that Romney is never on a greenback.; 9/12/17, 3:39 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: I don't think many white men have masturbated to Harriet Tubman.

I am Laslo.

Oh yeah? How many black men have masturbated to Jeanne Kirkpatrick?

I am not Laslo.; 9/12/17, 4:24 PM
Howard said...: This post is trolling for racist dog whistles.; 9/12/17, 4:24 PM
Bob Loblaw said...: This post is trolling for racist dog whistles.

I'm guessing you heard them all.; 9/12/17, 4:28 PM
Amadeus 48 said...: Barrett Holmes Pitner

Another idiot self-identifies.; 9/12/17, 4:47 PM
n.n said...: More progressive diversity or denial of individual dignity a.k.a. racism, sexism, political congruence, etc.

Add Planned Parenthood that denies lives deemed unworthy, inconvenient, or profitable, as well as redistributive change, we have the trifecta of neo-National Socialism.; 9/12/17, 4:53 PM
Michael K said...: "This post is trolling for racist dog whistles."

For which Howard has to turn down his hearing aid.; 9/12/17, 5:05 PM
wholelottasplainin said...: Balfegor said...
. I would say "great artists and literary figures" too, but we, ah, don't really have all that many of those. Scientists and inventors, though -- we have them in spades.

******************************

Horseshit.

Has it occurred to you that we've only been a country for 230-odd years, so the ROW has had a headstart?

Artists? For starters, there's Stuart, the Peales, Catlin, Eakins, Copley, Sargent....and more. And those are just in the 19th century.

If artists includes choreographers and dancers, you can begin with Isadora Duncan, Tharp, Cunningham, Balanchine, Robbins, Ailey, Graham...

What about composers such as Gershwin, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Bernstein, Porter, Armstrong,Ellington...

Or how about literary greats such as Twain, Fitzgerald, Thoreau, Steinbeck, Stowe, Wharton....

IOW There are plenty to pick from.; 9/12/17, 5:15 PM
The Godfather said...: My great grandfather was a prominent Abolitionist editor and writer (worked with Wm. Lloyd Garrison, wrote the first history of the Movement after the War). I'd love to see his picture on the currency. I've seen two pictures of him, one when he was young and handsome, and the other when he was older with one of those hateful beards that used to be fashionable (and seem to be coming back). I wouldn't ask a royalty of more than 0.01%.

BTW, do you know the story about the counterfeit $18 bill?; 9/12/17, 5:16 PM
tcrosse said...: This post is whistling for trolls.; 9/12/17, 5:18 PM
Alex said...: Does paper currency even matter anymore?; 9/12/17, 5:27 PM
Gahrie said...: That remains true if she was in the NAACP, ASPCA, or NSDAP.)

Then why the need to lie and obscure the true story?

The law was wrong. Parks was right to challenge it. Even better, she was prepared to accept her punishment for violating the law.

The myths around her make a nice story..but the truth is the truth.

P.S. Someone needs to read King's Letter From a Birmingham Jail to today's "activists".; 9/12/17, 5:50 PM
John Nowak said...: >Then why the need to lie and obscure the true story?

I wish they hadn't. It only cheapened what she did.; 9/12/17, 6:05 PM
Rocco said...: Laslo said:
"If it needs to be a black woman then let it be Halle Berry.

White men have masturbated to Halle Berry.

I don't think many white men have masturbated to Harriet Tubman."

So instead of a c-note, we can call it an o-note?; 9/12/17, 6:46 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: So instead of a c-note, we can call it an o-note?

No, President Obama gets the $3 bill.; 9/12/17, 8:20 PM
JAORE said...: great artists

Make it Pollock. Design the bill like his art. Then debate what denomination is represented by the splatter.; 9/13/17, 12:38 PM
Bilwick said...: I don't mind putting Abolitionists on the currency, since if you actually read what they wrote and said, they were proto-libertarians. (Even the socialists, such as Stephen Pearl Andrews, were libertarian socialists, a far cry from the your-money-or-your-life State socialists of today.) Putting pro-freedom heroes on State-issued "funny money" does seem like a contradiction, however.; 9/13/17, 1:54 PM