Chip Daniels
Aug 23, 2017 · 1 min read

Who is this “we” that you speak of?

It is, of course, the citizens of America. What’s happening now in America is a national dialogue and argument over who we should honor, and why.

When the Confederate statues were erected, only a portion of America was consulted. The voices and opinions of black people were silenced and ignored.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the opinion and attitude of many black people towards even Washington and Jefferson is ambivalent.

And why not?

For all the wonderful poetic words Jefferson wrote about human dignity and freedom, its hard to shake the notion that if he were alive today and I were black, Jefferson would just as well prefer to see me in chains.

Statues and monuments represent a consensus, a broad agreement among the citizenry that this person is deserving of honor. It is the end result of this very dialogue and argument we are having right now, and we need to have all the voices heard.

The most persuasive arguments about honor and sacredness are those couched in personal testimony and experience. Most often what we hear are arguments that seek to crush and obliterate, using the grinding machinery of logic.

I’m not offended by Washington and Jefferson.

But I respect the experiences of those who might be, or whose attitude towards them is more complex than mine.

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    Chip Daniels

    Written by

    Architect living in Los Angeles