Jo Faulk
Jo Faulk
Aug 27, 2017 · 1 min read

If we follow through with this same logic, I think it only makes sense to stop parading our American Flag in front of Native American Indians. Imagine what a “stick in the eye” it must be for them. But what I truly think is that we can’t go around blaming statues for racism. I’m a homegrown southerner, and the only thing those statues represent to me is simple history. In no way do I see these as condoning or supporting continued racism. The South lost and we know it. We got that memo long ago. But - the lives of family members who were lost and the vast destruction caused by the war deserves our Southern remembrances, especially for those who were still grieving the loss of immediate family members at the time these statues were first erected. True, there are symbols of the south that have been “appropriated”, if you will, by members of the Alt-Right and Neo-Nazi groups for their own modern-day version of facism, but its a distortion of reality to lay that at the feet of Confederate statues, and expect all Southerners to react accordingly. (By hanging our heads at the memory, and expecting us to shamefully rid ourselves of the fact of our past.) Instead, it makes more sense to expect everyone to behave like the adults you suggest we should be in your opening line, and stop punishing Civil War memorabilia for what it is no longer responsible for, or represents. If the point is to end racism, then stop punishing all Southerners. We aren’t the problem.

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    Jo Faulk

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    Jo Faulk