Throughout these past few months, the Black Lives Matter movement has brought many necessary changes to the racial injustices that had happened in recent times. But these recent events aren’t the only ones that had inflicted so much damage to Black communities and POC. Historical figures of the past that have tainted the world with death, destruction of cultures, colonization and hate towards people of different races have been praised for hundreds of years, but what if those historical figures were still studied but were seen not as heroes to humanity, but enemies for what our country stands for? We will still study what their achievements were but not put them at such a high pedestal of acclaim, such as giving them their own national holiday. This has been a relevant topic in terms of the BLM movement, which was a chance for people to knock down statues of historical figures that were praised for helping ‘build’ this country, but in reality they actually helped divide our country, while simultaneously creating it.So what do you think about this? Should these historical statues stay in place for their contributions to the country? Or should they be taken down due to the deeply racist and bigoted motives they possessed?
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ReplyDeleteSince no one is responding to this I might as well.
ReplyDeleteI see the point you are trying to make when it comes to the argument of whether this nation should tear down confederate statues due to the fact they're "racist". Now I'll agree to one thing, that some statues shouldn't be placed as they present no real importance toward american history, such as statues of minor slave owners. However in that same argument I believe that statues of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and other important figures toward the entire war, since that was all the confederacy is known for. The message that the statues should bring is one of what aushcwitz brings to the German people. One that reminds us that this was a horrible event that we should try to prevent if it ever was a rise. Such as if a specific group is calling to secede from the Union or is looking to start a revolution to dismantle the state and people rights. And to ensure that never happens we refer to those statues and say, " hey lets try to not recreate the events these men did". The other problem I see with the dismantling of these statues is that some of them shouldn't be torn down out of respect( I'm referring to the confederate memorial at a national cemetery in Gettysburg and at Arlington national cemetery) because they may have been our enemies, but they were still Americans and they deserve at least some remembrance since they were still human but that's my opinion. Now I understand that they denounced being American but this war was a war of brother against brother and the relation between the sides wasn't always sour as in one instance a battle became so bloody that a Union officer went into the middle of a field to tend to the wounded on both sides and then there was a cease fire. Their cause may have been a bad one in our eyes but they deserve at least some recognition and memorial as I stated prior. This is just my thought but I respect a good portion of your argument and I do find it important that research be done on these statues before tearing them down so everyone can come to a consensus of whether they should be torn or kept depending if it isn't a really important figurehead and just some random rich slave owner who "proclaimed" themselves a general.
This is all my opinion so think of it what you please.