You might not know what he said, but I do. I know that staff writer in NY, and she didn’t make shit up or decontextualize it. She actually confronted Yingling about the stars and bars patches seen on other men right next to him in other photos. And to his credit, he answered quickly and honestly.
Those statues were erected at later dates to rub salt in civil rights wounds. They should never have gone up in the first place, but now that they’re there localities themselves at the city council level should decide if they stay. That notwithstanding, I also agree we shouldn’t whitewash history. Fuck, guess I’m even sheepishly with the prez™ on that. I too can multitask!
But the statues also represent a whitewashing. A more accurate monumental rendering would be slaves who usually happened to be black enduring horrific abuse at the hands of masters who usually happened to be white. (Nothing racialized about that?)
Local city councils in the former CSA would never have gone for that back then though; they went for this instead. And misbegat a new, anachronous era of re-civil rights by never coming to grips with the original one.
Now, new city councils are. And I commend them. Wrong side of history is obvious. Or at least it should be since most of us all went to the same common core public schools.
