Petition calls for Missy Elliott statue to replace Confederate monument in Virginia

A change.org petition is seeking to have a statue of rapper Missy Elliott replace a Confederate monument in Virgina.

The petition, created by Nathan Coflin, has racked up almost 32,000 signatures in less than a week, with less than 4,000 names needed to reach its goal.

Coflin, a native of Portsmouth, Va., filed the petition to take white supremacy, “flip it and reverse it" by replacing the Confederate monument with a "true Portsmouth native hero," Missy Elliott.

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Missy Elliott, a multi-platinum hip-hop artist, was born in Portsmouth, where Coflin said a Confederate Monument currently stands in Olde Towne.

“We believe it is time to finally replace the Confederate Monument in Olde Towne Portsmouth Virginia near the intersection of Court and High streets with a new statue of a true Portsmouth native hero,” Coflin wrote on the petition. “Who better to encapsulate the culture and spirit of the city enshrined in a new monument than Grammy Award winning rapper, dancer, and record producer Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliott?”

Coflin, a longtime Missy Elliot fan, made nods to the rapper's 2002 single, "Work It," in expressing his reasons for replacing the monument.

SEE ALSO: Here’s what Robert E. Lee thought about Confederate monuments

“Getting this statue put up will be a lot of work and you may ask yourself is it worth it? I say yes and ask you to join me in letting us work it,” he wrote. “Together we can put white supremacy down, flip it and reverse it. Let us come together in getting City Council to erect this statue in honor of Missy Elliott and all those in the great City of Portsmouth who work it each and every day.”

Missy Elliot responded to the petition in a tweet, saying, “just to see this warms my heart and it's so humbling to me.”