Jo Faulk
Jo Faulk
Aug 27, 2017 · 3 min read

Sorry, but I have to disagree. Those statues are quickly becoming a national “rorschach test” on the issue of racism. Everyone is looking at 100-year-old monuments and investing them with all kinds of meaning that is likely not at all what would have been intended by those who actually lived in that post-civil-war era. And the end result is that the old South is being blamed for modern-day racism and continued social unrest.

I’ve lived in the South all my life, and have ALWAYS been aware that the South lost, slavery ended, and civil rights are human rights (ALL humans.) If anything, I think that because I am a southerner, born of southerners, we grappled with the issues of race up-front and head-on in ways many from the North never had to. The South has long since been the bearer of blame for slavery because we were the location of the area of agriculture that took primary advantage of the slave trade, but we were hardly the ones who invented the idea or the only ones who took advantage of the economic benefits of that form of “human resource”.

Yours is a story of latent shame and guilt. You didn’t know or realized the depth of the issues at hand because no adult in your group explained at at the time. Nor did they do the opposite, apparently. The fact that you’ve grown to a caring and fair-minded adult is testimony to your inner character as well.

My beef with this situation began a few years back, when it began to dawn on me that there are those alt-right or neo-nazi members of society who apparently enjoy employing symbols from the past as a way of forwarding their own modern-day political motive. They have “appropriated”, if you will, the Confederate flag, and looked to revive what was otherwise dead and dying in the true South. To now scourge and punish the collective historical south en-masse for the Alt-right’s twisted agenda’s is just mis-placed penalty, and will serve to demonize a people and history that are no longer involved.

To look at this from a historical perspective, and in context with the time the monuments were first erected — consider the fact that it was a time in the South when many lives had been lost, leaving behind grieving family members, heavy destruction of property and the resulting harsh economic conditions of the time. Those statues were more than likely a way of remembering what was lost, honoring those who were lost, and serving as a means of healing and support for those who felt it most personally.

No matter the outcome of this situation, the truth is that confederate statues and flags are merely inanimate relics of the old south. Racism exists in the hearts and minds of those who practice it, and attempts to conceal or eradicate history aren’t likely to resolve it. We might be making a statement, however misdirected, by ridding ourselves of open public display of these memoribilia, but it won’t stop racism. To do that, we need to stick to the facts and modern-day realities, together with REAL modern-day solutions and point the blame at the people who are actually causing the problems. Otherwise, the alt-right will just continue printing their own propaganda in whatever miscreant form speaks to their own tiny, twisted little hearts.

)

    Jo Faulk

    Written by

    Jo Faulk