I am happy to see the current push to remove, or provide context to, Confederate monuments.* It was always an issue I treaded carefully.
I grew up in Richmond, Virginia and lived there for 11 years in the 1960s to 1970s. Since I wasn’t born there, and in fact, moved there from solid Yankee country, I always felt like a visitor and reacted to the many monuments, Confederate memorabilia and symbols as I would a tourist to another country. I felt I needed to respect their history as an outsider would, and not interject my philosophy or beliefs on their precious ideology. Plus, it was clear that the south was annihilated by the Civil War and I felt no need to ram their loss further down their throats.
Like a tourist, I admired the monuments on Monument Avenue (Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Jeb Stuart, etc.) as a depiction of bygone eras. It was just history. It was quaint.
Through the years, the furor grew over the unseemly glorification of the Old South portrayed by these symbols. However, I still felt conflicted by the drive to remove Confederate monuments.
After all, the history of our country is rooted in its enslavement and subjugation of others to benefit the well-heeled. That legacy continues today. Many, if not all, of our country’s historic heroes and business tycoons were guilty of being slaveowners; being hostile to women, children and minorities; and exploiting workers’ safety for higher profits.
It seemed hypocritical to pick on the South, when the entire country is guilty of advancing on the backs of others. Are we trying to re-make our history by removing symbols that are deeply offensive to ourselves and others? Are we trying to white-wash who we really are?
The debate has appeared to reach an apex with the recent violence in Charlottesville. But in truth, the violence has always been there, simmering just below the surface in people who desperately want to hold onto "how things used to be." Who want to "keep blacks in their place."
In Charlottesville, an earnest white girl was killed. Her fresh white face has stared back at us in newscasts and media feeds. Now, everyone has leaped into the fray. White supremacists have killed one of their "own". The violence is too close to home to overlook.
Still, I don't believe that the push to remove Confederate symbols is white-washing. Or a trendy, feel-good measure. Charlottesville has shown us that the fervor to keep Confederate symbols is driven by people who want to reverse history. They want segregation to return. They believe they are racially superior.
I’ve been heartened by seeing many southerners lambast those hateful symbols of their past and protest for their removal. They have learned that clinging to Confederate ideals is not patriotism. It’s racism. It’s glorifying a history of treason and enslavement. If they have grown beyond that, then so can all of us.
*I can only hope that the monuments are not replaced with Pokemon kiosks.
