The Fourth Plinth sculpture of a Black woman dismissed as 'fat black' plus a made-up word used as a racial slur.
A sculpture depicting a Black woman was unveiled on the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square on September 11, and drew objections the same day. On September 11, KTHopkins asked on X why "we have a fat black" figure "on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square", with a made-up word used as a racial epithet in place of the word figure. The post offers no argument about the sculpture as art, its maker or the process that chose it. The objection is stated entirely as the race and body shape of the woman depicted. The post drew 292,090 impressions.
Fat black, followed by a nonsense word used as a slur, makes the woman's race and body the reason she shouldn't be there. Because she stands for the sculpture's subject, the objection lands on Black women generally, whose bodies are put up for ridicule in a public square. A made-up word does the work of a slur without being one you can look up.
The absence of any other argument settles it. Public art on the plinth is argued about every time, and there are ordinary things to say about a commission; the post says none of them and goes to race and weight. A fair-minded reader should take this as racial body mockery of a Black woman, with the sculpture as the excuse.
The receipts
Every quote, checked against its source.
KTHopkins (X)
"why we have a fat black [slur] on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square"
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