Simple statues are not enough...………. On Thursday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi ordered the removal from the Capitol Building of four portraits of former House speakers who had ties to the Confederacy.
No, you said it, not I. You obviously have a reading comprehension problem. I never said every Democrat pre-LBJ has ties to the confederacy or anything remotely like that. Thanks to FDR, the southern segregationists were part of a winning coalition of strange bedfellows including African-Americans, working class whites, Jews, ethinic groups. and northern liberals. It worked and won elections from the 1930s through the sixties. It began showing signs of strain in the Truman Administration with the Dixiecrats and later, with the Wallace challenge in '64. These strains were a result of the Democratic leadership under Truman, Kennedy and LBJ coming down squarely on the side of civil rights for African-Americans. The Republicans were left behind in the dust. You can't cite a single civil rights law or measure in which Republicans took the lead. It's not the sort of issue conservatives feel comfortable getting behind, and the Libertarian, Ron Paul, might as well wear a sheet. So it's really you who are the revisionist--blatantly trying to stand history on its head and convince us that black is white, or vice versa.
I don't think many Japanese Americans supported the Confederacy so what does their internment during WWII have to do with the Confederacy?
Backpedal, my ass! Sloppy misrepresentation of my post and history on your part Roosevelt and he Japanese, during World War II? Talk about shifting goalposts! Waddabout Nixon's "law and order" campaign and Reagan's War on Drugs? Whaddabout white supremacist Republican Teddy Roosevelt's record with Native Americans and Hispanics (or "Dagos", as he liked to call them). What civil rights measures did the Republicans sponsor?
Not nearly as many as Jackson. That portrait Trump likes to stand in front of has got to go, or at least not be used as a backdrop for presidential photo ops with Native Americans ! https://www.history.com/news/native-americans-genocide-united-states
Tearing down a statue of someone who was a racist or a slave owner several centuries ago, back in a time when being one was commonplace doesn't make a great sense but can be a great propaganda point for the real racist , klansmen, neo-nazi-fascists etc. Hell I hear that today even a statue of George Washington was vandalized. Not my country, anyway so I'm not getting mad about this, only very dubious about the motivations and the outcomes of such an act. The right wingers can easily exploit such facts to say that all the protesters are anti american fanatics that want to erase history. A statue of gen. Lee ? he was one who defended chattel slavery in a time when the rest of the civilized world recognized that practice as barbarianism. And a rebel, for good measure. And all his historical figure just amounts to that. So i suspect it is a very good idea to get rid of that bullshit that celebrates a person that has always been despicable and never deserved respect for any reason. Some random british, slave-trafficking Colston dude from the XVIII century no one knew before ? I don't see much point. It's not recent history and all this act managed to do was to just give him a new popularity. Also, difference from gen. Lee, his fame is not tied to the fact that he, like Lee, supported and practised slavery, but to him being a philanthropist, even if by our current mindset enslaving a group in order to benefit another one is disgusting and preposterous. It is a given that no one in our societies, even hardcore white supremacists, currently supports slavery or human trafficking, because it is now just an historical thing in our countries (ok in Mauritania and some other places it is a thing but this means nothing in our context), so it is out of question that the statue of Colton equals to a praise of slave trading. Churchill ? Be serious. I don't want to touch a man that made so many efforts to defeat adolf fucking hitler. But he was a racist. Sure, just like about any other white brit folk at the time. And again, his racism was not his defining quality. Bringing this stupid thing to the extreme consequences will mean having to erase the past in block, Pol Pot style. Down all the statues of Roman emperors ! Destroy all the images of the Pharaohs ! They ruled societies entirely founded on slave labour. I know what is going on here, it is a crazy Maoist cultural revolution. The idea of purifying the present from ancient ideas by destroying all traces of a thing was an insane feat back in the days and today it's even more harebrained. Want to target one historical figure who endorsed slavery ? Try Jesus Christ. Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
Very well put. Most humans have flaws and are prisoners of their time and culture. If one looks at the presidents on Mount Rushmore, every one of them could be vilified as evil racists: Washington and Jefferson? Slave owners. Lincoln, the Great Emancipator? Responsible for killing Native Americans. Roosevelt? Anti-Hispanic bigot. Shall we get out the chisels? That leaves a bunch of lesser knowns with mixed reputations. Most of the figures history calls "the great" were conquerors or warmongers. I think your statement about becoming a propaganda point for the real racist deserves emphasis. The current iconoclasm on the Left is propaganda--use of powerful emotionally charged symbols to mobilize people. But two or more can play the game. There's a tendency to push such devices to the limit, leading to inevitable backlash. This is happening generally to the phenomenon of "political correctness". Perusal of HF and other social media will reveal how right wing propagandists use this theme to recruit members. Actually, that was Paul.
Exactly it was Paul, but what I find most offensive is it was one of the quotes Christian slaveholders used to justify slavery
And the abolitionists preferred to quote Philemon, Galatians 3:28 and Ephesians 6:9. Paul was versatile.
We have to consider the statue and the man or women it represents. The right wing argument seems to be if you are going to take down the statue of a Confederate general, then any statue of any man or women who has any flaws at all must also come down. The justification seems to be the Confederate generals were flawed and their statues are coming down, others are flawed and since a flaw is a flaw and any flaw outweighs any positives, so all statues of anyone with any flaw must also come down. This would seem to neglect at least two points. One, flaws can be overcome by positive actions. Jefferson had slaves, but fought against slavery. The laws and morals he championed out weighted his flaws. During Lincoln's administration many indigenous people were treated very badly, but he also fought slavery. Teddy Roosevelt was a trophy hunter yet was also a great conservationist. FDR interned Japanese Americans but brought about sweeping social changes for the good of all. And so on. Two, the purpose of the statue needs to be addressed. A statue of Robert E. Lee in full Confederate uniform complete with sword astride his war horse "Traveller" is not the same as if there was a statue of Robert E. Lee in civilian clothes as president of Washington College, Virginia; whose faculty was strongly Unionist during the war, although the students were not. After the war while Lee was president of the college some students participated in violence against the local African American community. These acts were publicly condemned by Lee. I see little problem with a statue of Lee in civilian clothes or school attire condemning acts of violence against blacks during his tenure at the school. A statue of Lee astride his war horse glorifies his acts in the war. A statue of Lee in civilian clothes condemning acts of violence against blacks shows a man repentant, at least to some degree, for past actions and expresses the good side of the man, not the years he was a traitor to his country and mankind in general..
Used to be the thing to stand like a man made of stone, be strong and silent, and you would be safe in the world. Like a respected Statue. Lol