If the confederate monument was installed in the 19th century, I’ll hear the history argument.
If it was installed as an overtly racist response to civil rights movements in the 20th century, that shit is racist as hell and needs to disappear from public lands.
Nah. Tear 'em all down. The history can be left to the written word, detailing how they got destroyed. They don’t deserve any monument trying to extoll their “glory”. Rubble-ize them and put up memorials to the slaves in their place.
A collage/university in the UK (unfortunately can’t remember which one) dealt with a similar problem well. It had statues of the founders out front. Unfortunately, they made their money from the slave trade. There were calls to destroy the statues. They instead, moved them to a small, half forgot garden in the back. As well as their original descriptive plagues, some more were added, explaining how they made their fortunes, and the various moral failings we now see in them.
It seems to me like this struck a good balance. It acknowledged the good they did, while emphasising the bad. Failing to recognise both good and bad can occur in individuals is often how history can repeat itself.
In short, don’t destroy them. Instead, stick them at the back of a museum to the horrors of slavery, half forgotten, except for their crimes.
I like this approach, if we destroy the physical object, the history books will have less impact for future generations.
Add info about what horrible things they did, remove them from their place of honor, and put them in an alcove of shame.
No. Preserve them in museums as a reminder of what can happen.
History should never be destroyed, but that doesn’t mean it has to be celebrated.
History can and should be destroyed if we ever wish to move forward as a species. We can’t let idiots hold us back.
Perhaps, but it should be measured. Discarding harmful traditions and such is good, forgetting what we did wrong is bad. I think museums are a great place for these. We certainly don’t care for human sacrifice, but that doesn’t stop us from putting ritual daggers on display from ancient civilizations. No sense in forgetting something important and having to learn it all again, and large objects that stand as a monument to bad decisions can be subverted to a good cause.
With big bold letters that say “SLAVERY IS BAD” for any museums located anywhere that uses the phrase “War of Northern Aggression”.
I wish I saved that meme I saw responding to “confederate statues are my heritage” with “destroying the confederacy is MY heritage”
EDIT:
Participation trophy monuments lmao
The Daughters of the Confederacy can eat shit.
Oh, hell. I’ll link to it again. Fuck the South.
Your monuments don’t matter you fucking losers.
- a northerner
*Edit monuments not moments lol
Is yankee offensive? I am british and have called americans “yanks” for the past 10 years at least… Should i stop or is it ok?
It’s only offensive to people from the southern US, but they’re offended by a lot of things so who cares?
Nah. It can be used derisively but isn’t in and of itself offensive. You’re ok. Good on you for asking though.
Meh, in Tennessee a local bar has the Confederate battle flag on the wall and I have heard in there several times that all Yankees should be shot, referring to anyone from the north. The issue is that people have moved around so much there are from the north in the south and vise versa. New York and California are the most hated states by many southerners.
So you would find it offensive?
If you say it referring to Americans as a British person, non offensive. If you are from somewhere where you use it as a derogatory term… I would say it is intended to segregate the populace and that will offend people.
Participation trophies, don’t they hate those?
It’s funny how everyone in this thread has the opinion that they are on the winning or losing side as if anyone alive was actually involved in the war. How anyone can still take these things personally is weird. What I mean is calling a southerner a “loser” is weird from the person giving the insult and the person receiving it (if they actually feel offended, which they shouldn’t).