Jessica Chastain Slams Teddy Roosevelt Statue: ‘Out With the Old… In With the Better’

Zero Dark Thirty and The Help star Jessica Chastain has expressed her support for the removal of the bronze statue of Teddy Roosevelt that has stood outside New York City’s American Museum of Natural History since 1940.

The two-time Oscar-nominated star posted a photo of herself on Instagram giving a thumbs down gesture in front of the statue. “Out with the old… in with the BETTER,” she wrote.

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Out with the old… in with the BETTER. • "The latest problematic monument to come down is a statue of Theodore Roosevelt in front of New York's Museum of Natural History. @nycmayor announced the move after the museum had requested that it be removed. The statue features the nation's 26th President on a horse with a Native American man standing on one side and an African man standing on the other. While it was meant to celebrate Roosevelt as a "devoted naturalist and author of works on natural history," it also "communicates a racial hierarchy that the museum and members of the public have long found disturbing," the museum said. The announcement comes as several states grapple with how to handle removals of confederate monuments and other controversial statues."

A post shared by Jessica Chastain (@jessicachastain) on Jun 22, 2020 at 9:03am PDT

The museum recently stated it will take down the Roosevelt statue, following demands from far-left activists claiming that it is a racist work of art. One of the radical left-wing groups leading the charge is Decolonize this Place, which has claimed that Roosevelt is “problematic” because of his attitude toward Native Americans.

Removal of the @amnh Roosevelt statue is the work of many groups and generations, inc Indigenous activists in the 70s as part of AIM to recent organizing by BYP100, American Indian Community House, Indigenous Kinship Collective, Monument Removal Brigade + 📸 @normal_lo pic.twitter.com/zIBGL51EUJ

— DecolonizeThisPlace (@decolonize_this) June 22, 2020

For those of you wondering why Teddy Roosevelt is problematic: The reasons are endless, but here are a few. One of Teddy Roosevelt's most infamous quotes is, "I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are." pic.twitter.com/lDkM8BVH08

— DecolonizeThisPlace (@decolonize_this) June 22, 2020

The statue, which depicts the 26th president on horseback accompanied by a Native American man and a black man, “communicates a racial hierarchy that the museum and members of the public have long found disturbing,” museum leaders said in a statement.

New York Mayor Bill De Blasio (D) also voiced his support for the statue’s removal on racial grounds. “The statue clearly presents a white man superior to people of color and that’s just not acceptable to in this day and age,” de Blasio said on Monday.

Jessica Chastain’s movie career took off after she starred in the 2011 move The Help, which has come under fire in recent days for its “white savior” theme of white women helping black women.

Co-star Bryce Dallas Howard has renounced the movie, saying that she wouldn’t make the same film today. Chastain has so far remained silent on the subject.

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