James DeMers via Pixabay
The debate regarding the removal of confederate statues and monuments because of their white supremacist origin. Often, the removal of these statues has resulted in protest and violence in otherwise peaceful communities, most notably the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia. But just as the South did years ago, white supremacists today are fighting a losing and immoral battle.
Following the South’s loss of the Civil War, their movement for slavery changed shape dramatically. Instead of actively campaigning for for slavery to take place, they used symbols to disguise their true beliefs, erecting statues in order to preserve “heritage” and “states’ rights” as a beautification of slavery. The shifting movement to instill fear in freed African-American communities continued with the spread of monuments and confederate flags. The “protect our heritage and history” message was deemed passable and appropriate, and as a result, the offending statues stood the test of time in numerous locations since the late 1800’s.
However, it is important to recognize that the so-called ideologies that these monuments protect are blatantly false and invalid. Ken Burns, a prominent filmmaker and historian, states that confederate monuments were “all about the reimposition of white supremacy”, and not aimed towards any other goal. Burns goes on to suggest that the narrative of states’ rights and workers’ disputes being integral to preserving Civil War history is false, as the states did not believe in these principles, as he states, “If you read South Carolina’s Articles of Secession in November after Lincoln’s election of 1860, they don’t mention states’ rights, they don’t mention nullification, they mention slavery over and over again”
Thus, it is important to be wary of what confederate statues and symbols truly stand for, instead of what they are interpreted to mean.