Confederate monuments should stay because they connect past racial crimes to current racial inequality Nearly every heavy-crane company in southern Louisiana has received threats from opponents. I mean it's not like they chose to be slaves. Moreover, confederate monuments represent another tenet of the United States — the freedom of speech. Nor should we cherry pick stories to create an inoffensive narrative. thought about Confederate flags or monuments in their daily lives. If, in the future, the local population wants to move them back, they can do that too. Destroying Confederate monuments, however, is a different matter. Destroying Confederate Monuments Hurts Us All—and Accomplishes Nothing. Confederate Monuments: Past, Present, and Future. The vast majority of these Confederate monuments were built during the era of Jim Crow laws (1877–1964). The Orleans Parish Republican Executive Committee, along with its chairman and former councilman, Jay Batt, also agree the Liberty Place Monument should go but said it opposed the removal of the three Confederate monuments. Not all racist monuments should be torn down Zachary Fine New Republic 10 March 2016. Eternally vilifying the losers of some past conflict leads to eternal division. Should Confederate monuments be removed? Yet the final answer will have to come from Columbia. Rhodes hasn’t fallen, but the protesters are making me re-think Britain’s past Timothy Garton Ash Guardian 4 March 2016 Attributing all Confederate monuments to slavery seems like a large historical, and judgmental generalization.108.218.57.36 02:15, 12 September 2017 (UTC) I agree that a section should be created for non-Confederate symbols that were removed, vandalized, or called for the removal. The pain and torture that blacks went through is a horrible thing. If cities keep Confederate monuments in central squares “that’s a problem” because “that’s a city saying to the world ‘this is the most important part of our past… They want to do the right thing.” Of the Confederate symbols that were removed in the months following Floyd’s killing, at least 64 were monuments. Removing Confederate monuments in New Orleans is the right thing to do Stephanie Grace The Advocate 21 March 2016. The recent debate over the Confederate battle flag in South Carolina has raised questions about reminders of the old Confederacy left by previous generations. July 1, 2020. It presented an alternative to the proposal to remove the Confederate monuments. "But because tempers are flaring and emotions are high, that’s sort of how people are approaching it.” Instead, a lot of questions should be asked to inform a reasoned debate, say historians. Today's pro and con discussion concerns “To look at Confederate monuments as a big, monolithic one-size-fits-all sort of issue is absolutely the wrong way to go about it,” Mackowski said. In the wake of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, renewed public attention has been focused on Confederate monuments as symbols of systemic racism within the … They have long been the target of individuals who have felt the inequality of … A crucial thing to know here is that these attacks on Confederate monuments are not a new phenomenon. Confederate Flag And Confederate Monuments 1692 Words | 7 Pages. “Dismantling Confederate monuments and ridding sports teams and brands of racist imagery is not enough,” Marcos Martinez, the owner of the blog, www.themenwhobrunch.com, wrote in an email. You see conflicting numbers, but there seem to be about 1,500 Confederate monuments of some sort, statues and memorials, throughout the country. In his essay, Diaz-Griffith makes suggestions for what should happen to Confederate monuments going forward, presenting four options: Display the monuments and memorials in museums (excluding Confederate heritage museums) where they are interpreted in the context of "Lost Cause" ideology, the Jim Crow era, white supremacy, and systemic racism Confederate monuments . “For there to be racial progress, there need to be drastic improvements in failing schools in minority communities,” Martinez exclaimed. By destroying elements of our nation’s history, we are depriving the future generations of the opportunity to learn from society’s mistakes. The vast majority of them were erected between 1890 and 1930, and so that means that the real building project of them doesn’t begin until fully 25 years after the end of the war. All confederate monuments and flags should be placed in a private setting such as a museum. represent a moment in our nation’s past which, quite frankly, is an embarrassing moment and not a moment we should be celebrating.” Bigotry, racism, prejudices, disenfranchisement of groups of people based strictly on skin color and economic station in life will still be an ugly part of America.. We can not change the past. Confederate Statues A recent hot-button subject in the media has been what to do with Confederate monuments in the South. Heroes of the past are considered dishonorable today. Detractors claim that they were not built as memorials but as a means of intimidating African Americans and reaffirming white supremacy. Should these relics be removed or preserved as mementos of history? In this essay, I discuss how I built upon my use of archival materials in the classroom after participating in a fellowship program on my campus, how I use the university archives in teaching material culture and museum studies, and then how I focus on an assignment about the Athens Confederate monuments for my first-year seminar called Monuments and Commemoration in America. But once a Confederate monument is there, and has been there for decades, it inevitably becomes integrated into the history of a place. . And it’s a good thing to see visible layers of the past. If the Confederate monuments were truly going to be removed from the Bastrop County Courthouse, then the removal should have been swift and immediate. The current controversy over Confederate monuments is about how we remember the past and interpret its meaning. After the removal of a statue honoring Robert E. Lee, a general in the Confederate Army considered by many to be a hero for the part he played in the American Civil War, a clear divide has formed over whether it was the right thing to do. Removing Confederate monuments in New Orleans is the right thing to do Stephanie Grace The Advocate 21 March 2016. I oppose the erection of Confederate monuments. I was wrong. These issues are the stock in trade of historians, and many have written op-eds and done interviews with reporters for national and local news outlets. They should stop producing every flag of the confederacy, change southern state flags and get rid of confederate monuments and cemeteries. . It’s a stain on them. Destroying them is a one way street, with no way to change it later, should they chose that. If we are to become “united” and strive for a United States of America, then the idiology of holding onto the past which embraced division and hate must be removed. FORT MILL, S.C. -- Calls continue to come for Fort Mill to address its past. The fact that confederate monuments stand today is a failure of leadership. Rather, we should learn from history. It’s kind of a pride thing. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, what should be more disturbing is that these monuments still grace our civic spaces. Wiley believes monuments to Confederate figures should be placed in social context, not torn down. I sincerely believed there existed a rational argument for keeping Confederate monuments bolted on their pedestals in Southern town squares. As monuments fall, how does the world reckon with a racist past? Oxford’s Cecil Rhodes statue must fall – it stands in the way of inclusivity Yussef Robinson Guardian 19 January 2016. Brad McKinnon. That’s more than the 58 monuments removed … The removal of Confederate monuments will not get rid of the great racial divide that is on display all across America. 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