this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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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 vote we melt them down and recast them into statues/memorials for civil right's people. at least the bronze ones.
maybe even southern civil right's people.