While my research has not
been extensive or definitive, imagine my surprise to find that most of the
Confederate War statues were erected decades after the Civil War - some as late
as the mid-20th Century! Many were sponsored by the Daughters of the Confederacy,
and some by other organizations and means. Their placement in public areas,
parks, and such is problematic - there are charges they were placed as warnings
and reminders to blacks, the charges of placements in predominately black
neighborhoods, and many erected in the early 20th Century coincide with the
halcyon days of Ku Klux Klan. (Let's not forget their good friend, Jim Crow,
and all his "laws.")
You've heard of that
terrorist organization, I take it? They marched in New York City, circa 1926. They've rallied in
many states, in decades past - and not just in the south. I haven't verified,
but have it from a good source that the Klan once held one of its largest
rallies ever in a suburb (in the Chicagoland area) near here, one which prides
itself on its great schools. I do remember articles in the Joliet Herald News
from circa 1988 when this fine, upstanding suburb had a black woman appointed
as postmaster of the local post office. She was run out of town. I digress, but
not as far as you might think.
Read the Articles of
Secession of the Confederacy, and nearly every state cites it "right"
to the "peculiar" (in this case meaning "special" and not
"unusual") institution of slavery. Here's an excerpt from a Washington
Post article:
Other seceding states echoed South
Carolina. “Our position is thoroughly identified with
the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world,”
proclaimed Mississippi
in its own secession declaration, passed Jan. 9, 1861. “Its labor supplies the
product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of the
commerce of the earth. . . . A blow at slavery is a blow at commerce
and civilization.”
Most of the votes for
secession, in southern states, by its states Congressmen, were unanimous. It
wasn't about states rights - it was about protecting slavery.
Now, I understand that your
study of the Civil War means no harm, and that you mean no harm to others. My
mom's father was the same way. Here's the problem. The symbols of the Civil War
are not relegated to history - not even close!
See, the south may have lost
the military war, but they shifted that war to a social war, via the
aforementioned Klan and Jim Crow laws. Then, in the Fifties, when
"separate but equal" was overturned, and later, in the Sixties, in the face of
civil rights (an era in which four prominent leaders were assassinated, and
countless others were injured and killed) the south and white supremacists and
the Klan embraced their statues and Confederate battle flag and called it
"heritage."
As time goes by, more
injustices come to light, such as Emmett Till, who committed the sin of
whistling at a white woman? Never happened. After decades, the woman admitted
she made it up, and an anguished mother had an open casket funeral, so all
could see what was done to her son. Meanwhile, the sign commemorating the young
Till is still mostly readable, because there aren't quite enough bullet holes
in it!
The tiki torch brigade
marched on Charlottesville,
VA. Nazis. Not neo-Nazis -
nothing new about this crowd, except the boldness to march unmasked to defend a
statue of a Confederate general. (I really oughta thank this group. I
unintentionally held, for decades, the unofficial title of lamest white guy in America - until
these chuckeheads showed up.) They killed a woman, Heather Heyer. Even if she
was no saint, that right there should be the end of it. They're Nazis. They
killed a woman. Resist? You damned well betcha.
Which reminds me: most of the
terrorism and mass shootings in America
are committed by men who look like...well...me. When they happen, all my
"blue lives matter" / "all lives matter" Facebook friends,
and friends elsewhere, are unanimously silent-except to tell me that I'm wrong,
or I don't understand. I understand cowardice, when I see it. I understand all
the so-called Christians and conservatives who have unfriended me on Facebook,
or will no longer talk to me in real life. So secure in their righteousness and
almighty God, that they can't / won't stay around to engage. They won't stand
for people of color. Pardon my laughter.
See, the "slippery
slope" free speech argument doesn't work: The First Amendment guarantees
protection from government action - so far. There are limits to "free
speech." You may not, via speech, slander or endanger someone, or threaten
their well-being or life. It's about as
bad as the "don't look" argument - a nice little trope, when you have
the option - not so nice when said statue is at the end of your street!
Houston Police Sargeant Steve
Perez drowned in the flood waters of Harvey.
Where are all the "blue lives matter" people, now? My Facebook feed
remains utterly silent, except for the news feeds. What? Not shot by a person
of color? Or, he is a person of color? Silence. Hypocrisy. Judgement.
Let a black quarterback
"take a knee" in silent, peaceful protest? Instant, palpable outrage!
Oh, and "laughable." Laughable outrage. NFL had to refund money paid
by the Department of Defense for military tributes during games, as a form of
recruitment. No outrage. You can batter your wife or significant other, and
remain in the NFL. No outrage. NFL teams get taxpayer money to subsidize the
building or improvement of stadiums. Little outrage. NFL drags its proverbial
feet on concussions and brain injuries to its players. Little outrage. Take a
knee? General quarters! All hands, man your battlestations!
It just goes on and on -
while I'm assured that racism is not longer a problem, people of color are killed
in the most suspicious of circumstances, and the consequences are minimal to
none. The video of the Laquan McDonald shooting was suppressed for about a
year. If it hadn't been, we'd probably have Chicago Mayor Jesus
"Chuy" Garcia instead of Rahm Emmanuel. The video came out, and the
city of Chicago
flung five million dollar of taxpayer money at the family, to keep it out of
court. Gee, wonder why?
African-American behavioral
therapist Charles Kinsey was trying to calm an autistic man on a street in Florida. The police
arrived. Kinsey lay on his back in the street with his hands in the air. (White
people call this "exercise.") The police shot Kinsey. (Blue Lives
Matter / All Lives Matter people silent, again.)
The latest? You can lose your
police job for telling someone that only black people are killed by cops...but
you can actually kill black people, as a cop, and walk away.
So, yes - until the Civil War
is finally over? Move the statues out of public places. Move them to private property or museums.
(Not the battlefield monuments - that is an entirely different thing. Stone Mountain? I vacillate.) Tear them down. Knock them
down. Resist. Resist white supremacy,
Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan - they are one and the same, and they are emboldened by
a presidential administration of the highest cowardice, an administration who
invited people of color to vote because, "what do you have to lose?"
(Lives, apparently.) An administration which sends mixed messages, so the Nazis
are now comfortable with "Heil Trump!" while hate crimes and
killings, according to organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, have
only increased during the campaign and the incumbency of the most inept
administration in our collective lives. Well, not completely inept. Richard
Spencer and David Duke are thrilled! An administration which promised to
include the the LGBTQ community, and at first opportunity, threw them under the
bus. Bus? No. Something closer to the vehicles of more fully militarized
police, and whatever wheels of "Justice" may be used to grind them
under tread and boot. (All the while, the spiritual advisers of this mess of an
administration blame every natural disaster on "the gays." What
century is this, again?)
Pull down the slave
statues....oh, wait - there are none. No statues to the objects of that
peculiar institution. Damned odd, don't you think?
Go to Germany. Find
the Hitler statues. Throw the Nazi salute, like some American tourist nimrod
did, recently. Hint: it didn't end well for him.
Now, I know I'm not much more
than a Facebook keyboard warrior, with a little blog that may have a half dozen
followers. I ain't much of anything, any more, but maybe, there will be a time
for me to intervene, to stand - and in the parade of inept and lame Facebook
memes and posts, let this be my interjection, however brief, however small. I
dare to disagree.
We were children of the
"space race." We should be heading to the planets and stars, under
the benefits of a post-scarcity economy. Instead, we have to fight
institutionalized greed and racism, fettered by a budget which is a monument to
endless war and this-quarter profits. (Republican Dwight Eisenhower warned us.
We didn't listen.) (It's all of a piece. It's all the same thing.) The white
men, and their pedestaled white women, will lose, eventually. See, in about
twenty-five years, they'll be the physical minority. What then, I wonder?
The needed justice is not
only needed in the courtroom, it is needed on Wall Street, on Main Street, in our
schools, and in our prisons. The problems are systemic, and endemic, and the
burden is no longer with people of color. Have they not carried it long enough?
The paradigm shift needs be enormous - but it is within our grasp, if we have
the will. One Love.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths-about-why-the-south-seceded/2011/01/03/ABHr6jD_story.html?utm_term=.832d46e259da
