How the Media Convoluted Trump’s Views on Confederate Monuments

The nation is still reeling in the aftermath of the deadly attack that took place in Charlottesville, VA surrounding the racially charged violence. A young woman named Heather Heyer lost her life while many others were injured due to the actions of a bigoted individual. The rally that brought people to descend upon Charlottesville drew in thousands with contesting ideological views. It was led by openly racist individuals who hoped to propagate their toxic worldview.
The band of misfits attending the rally was made up of white nationalists, alt-right members, neo Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan who shared the goal of preserving monuments dedicated to figures from the Confederacy. These miscreants arrived in the college town to provocatively protest the removal of Robert E. Lee’s statue in Emancipation Park. The night before the rally, many participated in a torch-lit march on the University of Virginia campus, which created ominous imagery that hearkens back to a dark chapter in the nation’s history.
President Donald Trump addressed the violence that took place in Charlottesville, but was met with backlash from the press when he deemed there to be blame on many sides for the brutality that took place. The president was steadfast in standing by his initial comments that assigned blame to white supremacists and left wing protesters that he branded as the “alt-left.” Although the media harped on Trump’s tripling down on his take on the violent atmosphere in Charlottesville, the press was also fixated on his statements regarding the Confederate statues.
Trump questioned whether the removal of Confederate monuments would lead to calls for the rescinding of memorials of the founding fathers. Media outlets then took his statement out of context and ran pieces condemning the supposed false equivalency the president made between the founders of our nation and the men that rebelled against it.
The memory of the founders is unarguably complex. It is true that both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves; however, the founders had many abolitionists in their midst. It is well documented that Benjamin Franklin was an abolitionist and led the Pennsylvania Abolition Society after freeing his slaves. The nuances of our nation’s past are not able to be captured in today’s soundbite history lessons by pundits and columnists.
Over the years, certain groups protested around the country to take down memorials of the founding fathers due to their conflicting legacy. Recently, a pastor in Chicago called for the city to remove the statue of George Washington from Washington Park because of the president’s ownership of slaves. His points were echoed by civil rights activist Al Sharpton who said the idea that public funds went to maintain monuments such as the Jefferson Memorial was an “insult” to his family and mentioned that a private museum was a preferential location.
There has been a substantial effort by many different groups to demote the status of the founding fathers by erasing them from the historical landscape. For some in the press to denigrate Trump’s statements by saying that the possibility that memorials of the founders may one day be challenged is a matter of false equivalency is deeply disingenuous.
In the wake of Charlottesville, many Confederate statues were taken down literally overnight. In Baltimore, Maryland, the city council voted to remove four Confederate monuments in the dead of night. In Durham, North Carolina, protesters took it upon themselves to rally around a statue commemorating the Confederate era and topple it without sanction. There have been monuments taken down before the clashes in Charlottesville, but the acts seem to be increasing in frequency.
Many Democratic leaders in the country have been outspoken about the removal of these monuments. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey promised to introduce a bill that would remove statues from the Capitol. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi backed Booker’s statements and added that the statues in the halls of Congress have always been reprehensible, however, the Democratic representative from California has been in Congress for three decades and is now addressing the topic.
Although media coverage around the monuments has been paramount, it seems as though the public outcry over the statues has been overblown. In a recent poll conducted by Marist University in collaboration with NPR and PBS NewsHour, the majority of respondents held the view that Confederate statues should be left where they are as historical symbols. Surprisingly, more young adults oppose the removal of Confederate monuments than those who believe the statues are offensive. This data illustrates that those more vocal on an issue may not hold the prominent viewpoint, which is important to note especially with subjects so pertinent and polarizing as the debate surrounding Confederate monuments.
It is also essential to remember in the conversation surrounding the nation’s irreconcilable past that we need to be able to understand history in reference to the progress that has been made. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the first African American woman in the position, was asked about her views on the founders and whether it is right to still praise their accomplishments. She spoke of them as men of their time and went on to mention the strides made from her ancestors being considered three-fifths of a human to her father experiencing voter suppression in the middle of the last century to the moment she was sworn in as the nation’s foremost diplomat.
Secretary Rice made salient points about not “sanitizing” our history for the sake of preserving our feelings, calling it a bad thing and understanding the growth the country continues to go through. “The long road to freedom has indeed been long. It’s been sometimes violent. It’s had many martyrs, but ultimately, it has been Americans claiming those institutions for themselves and expanding the definition of we the people.”
