Confederate Monuments & Letting White Supremacy off the hook

September 3, 2017

Confederate monuments have become a major topic of discussion lately. Some people want to see them come down. Others want to see them stay up. What is the best way forward?

I’ve always thought the Confederacy was treasonous. I’ve always found it strange that somehow Americans were able to justify treason and graft it in as a celebrated part of history. And I’ve always thought that Confederate monuments were in fact monuments to treason.

Confederate Monuments are Monuments to White Supremacy

And it’s well beyond time that we hold America accountable for its love of White Supremacy. These Confederate monuments have been erected all over the Country. In both the North and South there are celebrations of Confederate soldiers and other advocates. And the rallying cry is always “Heritage not Hate.”

My response has always been: “It’s a heritage OF hate!”

I’ve recently started reading a very expository book: The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader. If you’re a nerd, like me, then you’ll be fascinated by the disconnect between those who celebrate the South today and those who founded the Confederacy. They make it clear that the Confederacy was founded on what they identified as the “great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.”

It also speaks of how while the South lost the battle, it ultimately won the Civil War. The ideologues of White Supremacy figured that although they lost: “If white supremacy could be reestablished (throughout America)…then the South ‘really triumphs in the true cause of the war, with respect to all its fundamental and vital issues.'”

White supremacy has indeed been established as the unwritten rule of the Country. And both the South and North have bought into the “great truth.” The institutions of this Country have been built upon this “great truth.” Confederate monuments are little more than reminders that we should stay in line with that “great truth.”

So, what do we do with Confederate Monuments?

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What are Your Thoughts?