In the context of this artwork, discuss the 2017–2018 of the Controversies and protests.
Already in August 2017, it was reported that Silent Sam "has been vandalized multiple times in recent years". "Silent Sam has been a target for protest and vandalism for decades." "The push to get UNC to remove the statue...took off in earnest in August 2017", after the proposed removal of Confederate statues in Charlottesville, Virginia led to the Unite the Right rally on August 11–12, and on August 14, the toppling of the Confederate Soldiers Memorial in nearby Durham. Beginning in August there was "a year of sit-ins, rallies and protests involving students, faculty and community members". On August 15, 2017, a video taken by a passer-by shows a man beating the statue with a hammer.On August 17, 2017, Chapel Hill mayor Pam Hemminger sent a letter to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, requesting that it petition the North Carolina Historical Commission to immediately remove Silent Sam from campus "in the interest of public safety." "The possibility of a breach of the peace is high, and with it the likelihood that Silent Sam could suffer substantial damage."On August 20, 2017, protestors singing "We Shall Overcome" draped Silent Sam in black, as had just been proposed for the Charlottesville statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, whose removal, at least for the moment, had recently been blocked (see Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials#Virginia).
On August 21 Chancellor Folt issued a message urging students not to attend the rally scheduled for the next day, "considering the potential for a highly charged atmosphere and the very real possibility for confrontation with outside groups." The rally was "being organized by groups not associated with the university... If we had the ability to immediately move the statue we would."The same day, UNC chancellor Carol Folt, UNC president Margaret Spellings, UNC board-of-governors chairman Lou Bissette, and UNC trustee chairman Haywood Cochrane wrote to Governor Roy Cooper, warning of "significant safety and security threats" concerning Silent Sam: "it is only a matter of time before an attempt is made to pull down Silent Sam in much the same manner we saw in Durham ... An attempt may occur at any time." They also asked the governor to convene the North Carolina Historical Commission to take up the question of what to do with the statue," although "the panel has little leeway to remove the statue permanently." The danger was not just the physical risks of taking such a heavy object off a pedestal, it was the probable confrontations between pro- and anti-Confederate demonstrators from outside the university. 
Folt stated that if UNC could remove the statue it would, but was prohibited by the 2015 law cited above. Cooper responded to Spellings, saying UNC could remove the statue if there was "a real risk to public safety," but did not himself say that the risk existed. Folt replied that despite the governor's advice, the university did not think it could say it was a "risk to public safety" in the sense intended by the 2015 law, which refers to "a building inspector or similar official" making that determination, "where the statue itself poses a physical hazard." As put on a separate occasion, "UNC...doesn't agree that it's received the green light by anyone with authority to relocate the statue." Removal will require legislative action. Folt received considerable criticism from UNC-CH students and faculty for not taking a stronger position on the removal of Silent Sam.UNC's board of governors also criticized Folt for her request of the Governor, saying that the request "was a 'wholly unacceptable' unilateral decision by Spellings and Bissette". They said the letter to the governor should have been reviewed and approved by the entire board, instead of only the board's committee chairs. They said they would not have given their approval to send the letter to Cooper. ... "The letter exuded a weakness and hand wringing that does not accurately reflect the Board's opinion about how the potential of campus unrest should be treated", said the letter, which was dated August 22. According to UNC-CH officials, "any petition to the North Carolina Historical Commission requesting the removal of the statue would have to come from the UNC System Board of Governors. That body has shown no public interest in doing so at this point."UNC's board of trustees then released a statement supporting Folt, saying: "Above all, regardless of the circumstance, the chancellor has a responsibility to the people of North Carolina to uphold all state laws. With this new law, it is relatively easy for many individuals to speculate about its meaning or offer possible loopholes as ways to operate around the law. It would be unwise and imprudent for the University to take any action regarding the monument without additional legal clarity, and we would expect no less from our chancellor."On August 22, 2017, at the beginning of the school year, a "Rally for Removal of Silent Sam", announced on a poster describing the day as "the first day of Silent Sam's last semester", attracted about 800 people. Thousands signed a change.org petition to remove it. Chanting "Hey, hey. Ho, ho. This racist statue has got to go" and "Tear it down", protestors marched to the official residence of University President Margaret Spellings, briefly blocking traffic on Franklin Street, Chapel Hill's main street, which adjoins the oldest part of the campus, where Silent Sam was located. The statue was surrounded by police in riot gear. Former UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser, interviewed at the rally, said: "I used to be of the mind that we should contextualize history...but Charlottesville changed my mind." "Once statues like this become weaponized by the white supremacist[s] and the Nazis, keeping it up is untenable, I think it has to go. And I think it will go."On September 6, 2017, demonstrators chanted and made noise with drums, pots and pans, birthday party horns, and "anything they could get their hands on" in front of South Building, where Chancellor Folt's office is. Their stated intent was "disrupt[ing] business as usual", and they unusuccessfully asked Chancellor Folt to listen to their reasons why they felt Silent Sam should be removed.On September 21, the day before the North Carolina Historical Commission was to meet, UNC-CH issued a press release. It stated that the university was not making any proposal on Silent Sam to the Commission at that time. Given that the North Carolina Historical Commission had not yet made any ruling related to the 2015 law, and that Governor Cooper, through the North Carolina Department of Administration, had filed a petition to relocate three monuments located on the State Capitol grounds, "We are carefully following these proceedings, which we hope will shed light on what standards the commission will be using to evaluate such matters." (The decision, which arrived two days after Silent Sam was toppled, was negative, as the North Carolina Historical Commission found that the law did not allow them to approve the request.)
On October 26, 35 professors from the School of Law posted a statement saying: "To many in our community, the armed soldier expresses the idea that some in our community are not equal. This disparaging and marginalizing symbol has no place at the core of an inclusive learning environment.... We also believe that the message it sends undercuts the University's mission "to teach a diverse community of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students to become the next generation of leaders. Maintaining this monument undercuts the value of equality protected by North Carolina law and the United States Constitution. We note that federal law obliges the University to provide an inclusive learning environment free of racial hostility...If the University remains uncertain of its legal ability to act, we ask it to seek a declaration in court to affirm UNC's right to remove the statue. This path would spare our students and faculty from the distraction, expense and pain of suing their home institution." They related the Silent Sam situation with another controversial issue, "the Board of Governors' recent ban on representation or counsel by the Center for Civil Rights."In November, 2017, Maya Little, graduate student in history and leader of Silent Sam protests during 2017–2018, posted documentation of the university's police department having used an undercover officer to gather information on the protestors, which the university confirmed. This discovery led to another rally outside South Building on November 14.A November 1 statement (posted November 9) from the Department of Communication stated "We understand 'Silent Sam' to be a symbol of the history and legacies of racial slavery, anti-black racism, and white supremacy that persist in the state of North Carolina, the university, and our country.... [W]e have a moral obligation to remove this symbol of violent oppression from our midst, and continue the work of dismantling systemic racism." 
The UNC Department of Geography, in a letter reported on November 9, stated that Silent Sam "contradicts values of diversity, social justice and anti-violence that our discipline embraces.... The continued presence of the monument is damaging to all of us who share this campus, but disproportionately jeopardizes the wellbeing of students with marginalized identities." On November 27, the UNC School of Education posted a statement on its website, saying that the statue is and "was erected as a symbol of hatred, bigotry, and white supremacy". ... As educators, we have an obligation to continue the work of dismantling systemic racism." "Faculty, staff, students and graduates from the UNC School of Social Work", in a letter reported on December 15, added their support, saying "Whatever else the memorial may symbolize to some, it was erected to glorify White people in the South, and, by extension, to carry on the subjugation of Black people. Its presence continues to legitimize and incite violence, dehumanization, and oppression. Such racist symbolism is antithetical to the ethos of this vibrant, public university."In late February, 2018, an email was sent anonymously to Chancellor Folt, stating it was from 17 "senior faculty", "all Full Professors and Endowed Chaired [sic] Professors", who vowed "to move the statue themselves if the Chancellor has not done so by March 1st at midnight", saying they did not fear arrest. They claimed to be from the College of Arts and Sciences, the Medical School, the School of Public Health, and the School of Law, and quoted Edmund Burke: "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing". They said they would release the email to The Daily Tar Heel, the campus newspaper, if she did not reply first. On February 25 a university spokesperson confirmed the letter had been received. On the same day the email, accompanied by a press release, was sent to The Daily Tar Heel, which published them. The paper said it had met with a representative from the group, "who is a senior faculty member at UNC". In a statement on February 27, "the group said they received word...that Folt is preparing to ask Gov. Roy Cooper to petition the North Carolina Historical Commission for an urgent ruling to relocate Silent Sam", and "as a sign of good faith, understanding that the Chancellor is now seeking the quick removal of Silent Sam, we shall stand down for the present". Asked if Folt reached out or was planning to reach out to Cooper in response to the letter, Joanne Peters Denny, a UNC spokesperson, said these conversations were not happening: "We don't make our policy decisions based on threats from unauthenticated, anonymous groups".On April 30, 2018, Maya Little defaced the statue, which she called "a symbol of UNC's commitment to white supremacy", with a mixture of red ink (some sources say paint) and her own blood. She described her action as "provid[ing] context": "This statue, Silent Sam, was built on white supremacy. It was built by white supremacists.... These statues symbolize the violence toward Black people. Without that blood on the statue, it's incomplete, in my opinion. It's not properly contextualized." The act was publicized in advance and news media and the UNC Police were present. She was arrested and charged with defacing a public statue, with a court date of August 20. She was also charged with a UNC Honor Code violation. The statue cleaning began within minutes, although at her trial, "a campus maintenance supervisor testified it took several days to remove red stains at a cost of about $4,000 in supplies and labor". Faculty in the History Department issued a statement supporting her. At her trial on October 15, she admitted her guilt, but the judge withheld the verdict ("continued judgment"), so she received no sentence, and court fees and restitution were waived. A petition Little posted on change.org asking for the Honor Court charges to be dropped received 6,600 signatures.In July, 2018, Silent Sam, covered by a red X and the words "North Carolina needs a monumental change", was depicted in Raleigh on two identical billboards, on Blount Street near Hoke Street and on North Raleigh Boulevard near the intersection with Yonkers Road. They were paid for by the Make It Right Project, a project of the Independent Media Institute, which is working to have Silent Sam and nine other Confederate monuments removed. The stated audience the billboards were intended to reach — thus the Raleigh locations — were the members of the North Carolina Historical Commission. At about the same time, the Project printed posters with a picture of Silent Sam, an X over him, and the words "We need REAL heroes", and students put them up on the campus.In a press release dated August 15, the North Carolina Historical Commission stated that it  "has received requests from private individuals to relocate the 'Silent Sam' monument at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but has not received a petition from the university, the UNC system, or its governing body, the Board of Governors."UNC had begun developing alternate signs and an interactive tour meant to place Silent Sam in context and tell the "true" history of UNC. From July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2018, UNC spent $390,000 on security for the monument. Of that, $3,000 was for cleaning the monument. The $387,000 remainder was spent on law enforcement personnel costs. Silent Sam was under 24-hour video surveillance via a monitor in the campus Police Department.
Margaret Spellings Franklin Street Edmund Burke Daily Tar Heel School of Law UNC School of Social Work white supremacy press release Charlottesville Robert E. Lee Endowed Chaired [sic] Professors racist right Honor Code University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The Daily Tar Heel Durham Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials change.org Full Professors University of North Carolina Tar Heel Confederate Unite the Right rally James Moeser Independent Media Institute We Shall Overcome Make It Right Project Confederate Soldiers Memorial Confederate monuments and memorials Carol Folt Medical School Charlottesville, Virginia Roy Cooper School of Public Health Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials#Virginia Professor College of Arts and Sciences