There is a lot going on in the US right now. It all started with a virus that blew right through our well thought out and thoroughly prepared pandemic team. Ha, just kidding. The dumbass in office decided to disband the Pandemic Response Team. Oh, and to make matters worse, he fired up all his sycophant followers by saying “The heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus. A lot of people think that goes away in April as the heat comes in,” which, first off was not supported by any sort of facts and secondly IT’S JULY AND WE’RE STILL INCREASING IN CASES EVERY DAY.
So here we are, 4 months into our quarantine, moving into a period of “Seriously fuckers, STAY HOME!” because a large section of the population decided wearing a cloth mask was just too damn much to ask. But don’t forget that armed militants who were mad they couldn’t get a haircut or go to Applebee’s during the quarantine, stormed the state capitol in Michigan and local police did nothing.
Why do I bring all of this up? Stay with me, I swear I’m getting there. When George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis Police Department, it set off a series of protests against police brutality against people of color. It was a ‘last straw’ sort of thing. Black Lives Matter, whose mission statement is ” to build local power and to intervene when violence was inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes,” has taken the lead in this charge. It’s a telling sign that there is massive change needed when it comes to the way police forces are deployed and the tactics they use. When you see the Lansing Police Department (and Columbus Police too for that matter. They had anti-quarantine protests, too) stand by with their arms crossed in the face of predominantly-white protesters armed with various forms of assault rifles but are shown violently taking down peaceful BLM protesters…there’s probably a problem with policing. But this is all setting the tone for my big point here, we’ll take on police brutality some other time.
What we’ve been seeing across the country during these Black Lives Matter protests is the destruction, defacing and tearing down of Confederate statues and monuments. Now, from the simplest of standpoints, one might wonder “what does a war that was fought 160 years ago have to do with the current racial profiling and police brutality of today?” Well…these statues are honoring that fight but very specifically, the side that lost. The reason they exist in such large numbers (over 1500 memorials, more than 700 statues and 10 military bases) is incredibly insidious.
After the South lost the Civil War, there was a concerted effort to reframe the narrative of their fight. They created an intellectual movement known as “the Lost Cause” movement. It romanticized the Southern cause during the Civil War, making it about 3 major points:
– noble Confederate soldiers fighting for “what they believed in”
– slavery wasn’t all that bad, they loved being slaves
– slavery was not the root cause of the war: it was about state’s rights
That rewriting of history alone was incredibly effective as many people truly believe those things are true. Just those concepts alone shouldn’t completely change history, right? Correct. But it got worse. A group called the United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded in 1894, the bulk of the membership being descendants of elite antebellum families. They used their money and social standing to push their “real history” and lobbied southern state governments into erecting monuments and statues in prominent public areas (state capitol buildings, courthouses, road sides, parks, etc). From the 1910s to the 1930s, the majority of these memorials were erected.
The UDC had convinced fellow southerners that their cause was to teach white children the “truth.” But it’s worse than that. The statues were not their only mission. They used their written propaganda and convinced schools across the South to make this Lost Cause narrative part of the curriculum. They even created an auxiliary group known as the Children of the Confederacy to ensure their bullshit history was propagated for generations to come. “But that’s just teaching a different point of view of history!” some might say. Well, they’re teaching children that slavery was not so bad. “Slaves loved being slaves! They had a place to live and food to eat!” was the narrative being pushed. Then why did so many try to run away? Why were so many of them beaten and disfigured horribly if it was “a benevolent institution?” If it was such a great time for the slaves, why were groups like the UDC and the KKK (which the UDC helped fund) preaching a narrative that black people were inferior to white people?
So, you might read that and think “wow, I can’t believe they tried to change history like that!” TRIED??? They succeeded. A Pew Poll back in 2017 showed that 48% of Americans believed the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, it was about states rights. In a way, the war was about state’s rights, but the right that was the most important to the Confederate states? Slavery. Read their letters of secession right here if you don’t believe me. Or, one could point to the “Cornerstone Speech” by Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens where he made it clear that slavery was a huge part of the reason they left the United States. On top of that, if they were so pro state’s rights, wouldn’t they respect the rights of other states? One would assume that would be a yes. No. New York made a law that no person was allowed to bring their slaves with them if they were visiting New York. Southerners got PISSED.
Do you know when the majority of Confederate statues found their way onto public land? The 1900s, when Jim Crow laws were going into effect. These were a public reminder to black folk that they would never be thought of as equal to whites in the South. You know when another spike in statues and monuments happened? 1950s and 1960s: the height of the Civil Rights movement. And it wasn’t just the statues and monuments in the southern states who seceded! 11 states formed the Confederacy but there were 31 states with monuments of some sort. And it didn’t stop there, either. As the civil rights movement gained steam, Georgia changed their flag to include the Confederate flag and South Carolina began flying it under the American flag at their state capitol building. This was not honoring any “brave fighting men,” this was a reminder to “know your place.”
“But the military bases! They’re honoring brave soldiers!” WHO KILLED AMERICANS WHEN THEY CREATED THEIR OWN ROGUE COUNTRY. Fort Bragg was named in 1918…right around those Jim Crow Laws. Fort A.P. Hill wasn’t built until 1941!!! You mean to tell me there weren’t any military heroes from Virginia that weren’t part of the Confederacy? What about the Revolutionary War? Wait…most of those guys were slave owners, too. Damnit, Virginia.
Now, some will say “oh that’s non-sense. This war tore this country apart. They’re just honoring history and trying to show that we came together again!” The losers of a war to keep the institution of slavery and oppression of black people do not get to dictate what is and what isn’t history. We as a country need to stand up and ensure that their narrative is smashed. We can do this by learning ourselves and teaching our children the truth about this war. When someone says “Lincoln wanted to abolish slavery,” tell them about how when Lincoln was elected on the platform of “no expansion of slavery into new territories,” the South freaked out and started seceding. He had no intent of making slavery illegal at the time, he just wanted to keep the country together! Here are his exact words
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that….”
But bear this in mind, too: as the war raged on, Lincoln refused to make peace with the Confederates without the abolition of slavery. Why was this such a big topic? BECAUSE SLAVERY WAS A ROOT CAUSE OF THE CIVIL WAR. The group of rich, white slave owners whose entire wealth was built on the back of African slaves were unwilling to give up their free labor. They were so entrenched in their beliefs, they convinced many American soldiers who called the South home (many of them slave owners themselves) that they should betray their country for this cause. Think about that for a second: rich, white people controlling the narrative in the political realm…where have we seen that recently? Oh that’s right, there’s a rich white dude in office right now who built his wealth off of screwing other people over and being racist. And what does he do when presented with facts about things that have happened? Changes the narrative by yelling “fake news.” This tactic has been around for a while.
We need to fix this narrative with facts. The truth is the most damaging thing to the Lost Cause narrative. Don’t let Confederate sympathizers lie and change history to try and gaslight the institution of slavery. For context, this is why the Aunt Jemima character is being retired. It’s why Disney is changing Splash Mountain so it doesn’t include characters from “Song of the South.” These are both examples of that Lost Cause narrative, that slavery was just dandy for black folk.
These statues in public places need to come down. If you continue to support them, you’re supporting a racist re-writing of history. Black folk are tired of being reminded that many white folk in this country think they’re not equal to them. And if you’re a white southerner and you’re just now learning that your history is a lie? It’s cool. Let’s talk. We got lots to go over but at least you’re willing to learn. Let’s fix this mistake that we’ve let exist far too long and stop honoring traitors. Let’s stop deifying those who thought black people were less than human, who fought to keep them as property. We should not idolize humans who after losing a war over slavery decided that they didn’t want to be viewed as monsters so they created a false history. The Lost Cause, just like the Confederacy itself, should burn, never to show it’s face again.
Eww, Politics 