A Plaque on Both Your Houses

[executrix]

History is a record of what happened, not the (much shorter) record of GOOD things that happened. So my advice to courts and legislatures considering Confederate monument cases would be to impose a mandatory injunction keeping the monument there--with a plaque attached saying something like "NAME fought to defend the South's heritage of persecution and exploitation, a disgrace to humanity that exists to this day. NEVER FORGET. Paid for by Black Lives Matter and the NAACP."

Comments

[stardreamer]

I don't think that was the point. The point, as I see it, is that black people should not be forced to walk past a reminder of that period -- and its side effects which are STILL ONGOING -- every time they go to the park or walk into a public building, where they may well be going for reasons that are already stressful. Every one of these monuments is a painful reminder that they are STILL not considered full members of society.

[minoanmiss]

Thank you for saying this. I was trying to figure out how to, once I stopped shaking.

[ekaterinn]

THIS. Also, an awful lot of those monuments were erected specifically to remind black people of "their place." Tearing them down is the least we can do.

Executrix, if you want to educate people, why not advocate for the erection of statues to commemorate the achievement of black people and other minorities - there's so many of those that are seriously underappreciated.

THAT might be a solution for cities like Birmingham who want to take down statues but are constrained by state law - put up a new statue of a person of color for every Confederate statue that remains standing. Unlike a plaque, these would be visible statements of the worth of black people AND teachable moments for white people.

[executrix]

That would be great-statues of Ida B. Wells would be an excellent start.

[lavendertook]

Thank you for stating this so well. It's about prioritizing the needs of black people in this history of white people denying them their humanity.