Give Control of Confederate Monuments to African Americans
Over the past few days, thanks to Charlottesville, I’ve read rather a lot about the history of confederate monuments as well as the process of how monuments to historic evil have been shaped. I am learning.
One of my conclusions is that it is representatives of the descendants of slaves who should be given control of the narrative of slavery, the confederacy, and Jim Crow, just as Jews were given control (in Germany) of the Holocaust narrative. (There are some nuances and complications in that story that I won’t delve into here.) Giving the descendants of slaves control of that story is the very least America can do, if we ever want to become whole again.
I say “giving”; in fact, the descendants of slaves have fought for that power and they have earned it. It’s time for those who benefit from whiteness to surrender. That is the bravest thing we can do. We’ve been cowards for so long, hiding behind excuses and euphemism and equivocation and lies. Why not try courage?
So, don’t tear down the monuments: Instead, give them to African-American scholars and communities. I doubt very many will disappear altogether; African-Americans have shown a much stronger sense of history than their amnesiac fellow Americans. I trust the story they’ll tell more than I trust the idiots marching with torches, chanting, “Jews will not replace us.”
It’s very simple, to my mind. We — the victors of WWII — wouldn’t let Nazis tell the story of the Holocaust. At our best, we let the survivors control that process. Embedded in that process is the idea that Jewish lives matter and Jewish voices matter. (So do the lives and voices of the members of other groups targeted by Nazis.)
Why shouldn’t that be the case here in the U.S.? Are the descendants of slaves part of America too, or does each one need to produce a birth certificate? Do their voices matter? Do their lives? If the answer is yes, surrender. Stand aside. Let them to take the monuments. Let the monuments become a part of the African-American story. Let’s listen to that story, and see what we can learn about ourselves.
