13th June 2020, 3:28 PM
Here in Montgomery, Alabama, we built a memorial to victims of lynching. The same white people who bellyache about Confederate statues being removed also bellyached about this memorial, claiming it was "stirring the pot" and continuing to fuel racial division (the history argument apparently doesn't apply here). These are the same people who decided to refer to MLK Day as Robert E. Lee Day. Their racism is so thinly veiled, they might as well be wearing white robes.
The history argument is a poor one anyway. Why do we need statues to learn from history? That's what books, classrooms, and museums are for. And I do support putting some of these Confederate memorials and statues into museums. However, it sends a much different message when you display them in the middle of a townsquare for all to see. In doing that, we're celebrating people who maybe don't need to be celebrated. Here in Montgomery, we have schools named after Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Sidney Lanier, all of which have majority black student populations. There is no reason why these schools should be named after the very people who fought to keep black people enslaved. Changing the names doesn't erase history; it just means we choose not to celebrate the worst parts of it. Montgomery is the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement and is notably where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus. We could rename these schools after Rosa Parks, Dr. King, and other civil rights leaders. That is a history worth celebrating. And I guarantee you, if we do that, white people whose children don't even attend those schools will freak out... but I mean, who cares what they think?
And yeah, it's absurd that military bases are named after Confederate generals. We do realize those were our enemies, right? We're stationing US troops in military bases named after men who killed US troops? There's even an elementary school named after Robert E. Lee in the state of Washington, so don't give me that crap about it being a celebration of "southern heritage." The naming of these schools and military bases, and the installation of these statues and memorials, is and always was a statement of white dominance over African Americans.
So yeah, this white Alabama man supports the removal of all Confederate statues, flags, and memorials and the renaming of all schools, military bases, and other locations named after Confederate figures. If you had asked me my opinion 15-20 years ago, I would have told you the same thing: the Confederates were the bad guys in that war, they lost the war, and they barely existed four years in the mid-19th century, so I don't see why southern white people are still making such a big deal out of them. Why does celebrating southern heritage mean we constantly have to celebrate all the worst parts of it? Let's start a new heritage that isn't evil, ignorant, racist garbage.
The history argument is a poor one anyway. Why do we need statues to learn from history? That's what books, classrooms, and museums are for. And I do support putting some of these Confederate memorials and statues into museums. However, it sends a much different message when you display them in the middle of a townsquare for all to see. In doing that, we're celebrating people who maybe don't need to be celebrated. Here in Montgomery, we have schools named after Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Sidney Lanier, all of which have majority black student populations. There is no reason why these schools should be named after the very people who fought to keep black people enslaved. Changing the names doesn't erase history; it just means we choose not to celebrate the worst parts of it. Montgomery is the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement and is notably where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus. We could rename these schools after Rosa Parks, Dr. King, and other civil rights leaders. That is a history worth celebrating. And I guarantee you, if we do that, white people whose children don't even attend those schools will freak out... but I mean, who cares what they think?
And yeah, it's absurd that military bases are named after Confederate generals. We do realize those were our enemies, right? We're stationing US troops in military bases named after men who killed US troops? There's even an elementary school named after Robert E. Lee in the state of Washington, so don't give me that crap about it being a celebration of "southern heritage." The naming of these schools and military bases, and the installation of these statues and memorials, is and always was a statement of white dominance over African Americans.
So yeah, this white Alabama man supports the removal of all Confederate statues, flags, and memorials and the renaming of all schools, military bases, and other locations named after Confederate figures. If you had asked me my opinion 15-20 years ago, I would have told you the same thing: the Confederates were the bad guys in that war, they lost the war, and they barely existed four years in the mid-19th century, so I don't see why southern white people are still making such a big deal out of them. Why does celebrating southern heritage mean we constantly have to celebrate all the worst parts of it? Let's start a new heritage that isn't evil, ignorant, racist garbage.