On April 20th, it was announced by the United States Treasury that Andrew Jackson would be replaced on the upcoming twenty dollar bill revision with a portrait of Harriet Tubman. While Harriet Tubman will be prominently portrayed on the front, Andrew Jackson will still be referenced on the back.
Unfortunately, this news did not sit well with racists on Twitter, who quickly took to social media to proclaim the move as a “war on whites.” Some particularly troubling users even went so far as to suggest that the design was actually a giant conspiracy to more quickly move the United States towards a cashless society by encouraging people to stop using the twenty dollar bill.
Thankfully, most people were not negatively motivated by the decision, and instead took to social media to proclaim the move as a victory for social justice advocates. In fact, many drew parallels to the Treasury department’s decision with the recent Broadway success, “Hamilton,” which portrays the nation’s first Secretary of Treasury in a non-traditional cast of minorities.
The new design for the Harriet Tubman twenty dollar bill, as well as further changes being made to Hamilton ten dollar bill and others, are set to be unveiled at some point in 2020.
