We Deserve an America That Understands Confederate Tributes Are Monuments to Evil
We can no longer afford to be passive in the presence of malicious symbols
I saw a recent news report that suggested 60% of Americans think it’s acceptable to preserve Confederate statues. Immediately I wanted to ask some follow-up questions. How many of the people who responded feel that racism is acceptable? How many feel that human slavery is acceptable?
As I observe the perspectives of my fellow Americans, it saddens me to think that I truly don’t know if their beliefs are rooted in ignorance or in a despicable need to inflict pain on their fellow human beings.
Few Americans even know that the majority of the Confederate statues that currently disgrace our countryside were erected 40 years after the Civil War. When people say, “It’s about tradition,” they’re not being truthful. We have Confederate statues because the KKK came to power and wanted a means of normalizing their ideology of white supremacy.
Putting up statues of Confederate generals makes about as much sense as putting up statues of Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate for President who lost to Ronald Reagan in 1984. It’s been 40 years, and many people have forgotten that Mondale argued that we need to do…
