Then take advantage and put the truth out there. Have more monuments of Confederates up BUT don't do just that. Have the admiring crowd shown erecting the monument with their feet on the back of a slave and their hands hauling a black man up the branch of a tree with a rope while wildly cheering the statue's placement.
Show what the statue really represents, not the Confederacy or any person, but the intent of those who installed them. It's the intent that matters and show the ugly truth.
While I understand the emotion here, mob rule isn't the way to go about it and not how this should be handled. Decommission the statues and move them to a museum where their history can be appropriately contrasted to their oppression.
Me neither but I'm not comfortable with the idea of erasing history this way. Vic has a point I think. When they had White Supremacist Day II, the opposition completely overwhelmed the ignorance by showing people up for what they were. I like that.
But there's another thing and that's where does it end? Where is the same support for wrongs done to non-blacks? Half of my people were subjected to genocide, cultures eradicated, sent to concentration camps without an effective means to escape. Where is their justice? Do native Americans not count because there aren't enough left to swing a vote? This nation was founded on theft and murder, not just blacks enslaved.
There was a discussion over a shirt. Who gives a crap about that? That's the slightest thing in terms of relevancy.
I can rightfully demand that our "indian fighters" be removed and I have as legit a basis as any black or anti-confederate person.
Take down all statues to Washington and others who engaged in murder and Manifest Destiny, virtually thousands of representatives. Get their images off our currency as no greater wrong was done by these people than many others.
Erase them from public sight, the collective memory.
Not a chance, further I don't want that. I want truth known and everytime Washington or others is displayed a nagging feeling of disapproval register at some level.
Again, not a chance.
Nah, just take them down.
I've never understood the "erase history" narrative when it comes to removing statues. History isn't recorded by statues, it's recorded in books. Statues, monuments, etc. are just aggrandizing a particular person/event/etc. Statues are not the record of history at all.
Has removing any Confederate statues erased any of the history of the Civil War...at all? Didn't think so. Their removal has only removed public displays of racism erected by conservatives of that region.....not erased a damned bit of history.
I do think this way isn't the right way to remove those monuments, but given the reluctance of conservatives in the South to remove said monuments, I'm not surprised episodes like this in the OP do happen.
While I understand the emotion here, mob rule isn't the way to go about it and not how this should be handled. Decommission the statues and move them to a museum where their history can be appropriately contrasted to their oppression.
On the other hand, can I play Haydn's "Emperor" string quartet and not be assaulted? This was not the way to do this, at all. H.G Wells and countless others were Eugenicists, H.P Lovecraft a racist etc.
There's a reasonable approach but some things are over the top. If this was going to be removed then it should have been, in a legal and proper way.
These weren't and aren't Civil War statues. They were erected by White Supremacists in direct response to and loud public condemnation of the cycles of civil rights and civil liberties movements throughout post civil war America. That is the actual context of their history.
To me, the question is why... why now?
Is it because of the internet? Our new social fabric has finally growth large and powerful enough to smother out and erase the backwater places of the South? Locals who want to topple statues now have national backing, and that sort of organization is just one tweet away. Seems potent, and never before possible.
You forgot one other thing...said Julian Carr also decided that Silent Sam would be placed a few paces away from the spot where he personally whipped a black woman bloody for the crime of "maligning a white lady".For those who need some context: the statue was placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and during the dedication ceremony the industrialist Julian Carr touted the Confederate soldier as valuable to the "welfare of the Anglo Saxon race," particularly in the four years after the war... in other words, he saw the statue as a tribute to the Ku Klux Klan.
I would have preferred a formal removal process, but I'm happy the statue is down and hope it stays that way forever. It was a monument to racism and nothing else.
About 100 yards from the statue, he said during his dedication speech at his alma mater, he had, in the weeks immediately after the end of the Civil War, personally “horse-whipped” a black woman “until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady, and then rushed for protection to these University buildings where was stationed a garrison of 100 Federal soldiers.”
“I performed the pleasing duty,” he continued, “in the immediate presence of the entire garrison, and for thirty nights afterwards slept with a double-barrel shot gun under my head.”
Yeah, right.
It all depends on your opinion of the statue in the first place. Not a lot of tears were shed when the statue of Mussolini in Italy was toppled and I didn't hear you whinging that the statue of Saddam that was ripped down in Baghdad was not decommissioned and moved to a museum. So maybe you need to look inward and determine why your feelings about a confederate statue are different than your feelings for Mussolini or Saddam.
I believe students responsible should be expelled from the school. They need to understand their violent action have consequences,I agree there should be some legal action against these people. Shooting those who resist seems... a bit severe though.
Private entities may have paid for the statue so they deserve to have it returned to them. Whether they decide to display it on their private property, sell it for the scrap value of the metal content, and whatnot should not be a decision forced upon them after the fact by the hasty actions of a mob.
I believe students responsible should be expelled from the school. They need to understand their violent action have consequences,
To me, the question is why... why now?
Is it because of the internet? Our new social fabric has finally growth large and powerful enough to smother out and erase the backwater places of the South? Locals who want to topple statues now have national backing, and that sort of organization is just one tweet away. Seems potent, and never before possible.
I guess if you erect a symbol of hate you risk that it could be torn down with no recompense. Too bad, so sad.
We are talking about now, not what happen to peopel who are dead and buriedWhat were the consequences for the violent actions of the confederacy after they lost the war?
LOL, so you're going to give tacit approval to the actions of a public mob? The alt-right will love that precedent.
Private entities may have paid for the statue so they deserve to have it returned to them. Whether they decide to display it on their private property or sell it for the scrap value of the metal content should not be a decision forced upon them after the fact by the hasty actions of a mob.
Me neither but I'm not comfortable with the idea of erasing history this way. Vic has a point I think. When they had White Supremacist Day II, the opposition completely overwhelmed the ignorance by showing people up for what they were. I like that.
But there's another thing and that's where does it end? Where is the same support for wrongs done to non-blacks? Half of my people were subjected to genocide, cultures eradicated, sent to concentration camps without an effective means to escape. Where is their justice? Do native Americans not count because there aren't enough left to swing a vote? This nation was founded on theft and murder, not just blacks enslaved.
There was a discussion over a shirt. Who gives a crap about that? That's the slightest thing in terms of relevancy.
I can rightfully demand that our "indian fighters" be removed and I have as legit a basis as any black or anti-confederate person.
Take down all statues to Washington and others who engaged in murder and Manifest Destiny, virtually thousands of representatives. Get their images off our currency as no greater wrong was done by these people than many others.
Erase them from public sight, the collective memory.
Not a chance, further I don't want that. I want truth known and everytime Washington or others is displayed a nagging feeling of disapproval register at some level.
Again, not a chance.