If the Southern vestiges of slavery, which to civil rights activists represents racism at its worst, must be erased from history, then it stands to reason so must our 13 slave-owner presidents
By Howie Katz
Big Jolly Politics
May 16, 2017
Ever since the 2015 mass-murder by a white supremacist of nine black worshipers in a Charleston, South Carolina church, there has been a move by civil rights activists to remove all statues of Confederate war heroes sitting on public grounds and to rename all schools that are named in honor of those men. So far at least 60 statues have been removed and schools renamed.
Four Confederate monuments have been designated for removal in New Orleans. An obelisk honoring an 1874 uprising against Reconstruction by whites in New Orleans, was taken down on April 24 by workers wearing flak jackets and scarves to conceal their identities. The statue of Jefferson Davis was recently removed in the middle of the night. Statues of Confederate generals, P. G. T. Beauregard and Robert E. Lee are next on the chopping block.
Those clamoring for the removal of statues and the renaming of schools and parks say that symbols of the Confederacy and slavery are a painful reminder to blacks of white supremacy.
The latest effort to erase or rewrite history is taking place in Charlottesville, Virginia where the city fathers want to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee astride a horse.
The Houston Independent School District Board of Trustees has ordered that the names of seven schools be changed to erase the names of Confederate heroes, including Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson. And how much is that going to cost? $1.2 million taxpayer dollars. That’s $1.2 million so that some blacks won’t be painfully reminded of white supremacy
But why stop with Confederate heroes? If slavery represents racism at its worst, then we should tear down the statues of all slave owners and change the names of schools that bear their names. How about starting with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, two large slave owners? And there are 11 other presidents that were slave owners who have either statues sitting somewhere on public grounds or schools named after them.
In addition to Washington and Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant were American presidents who were slave owners. Down with their statues! Get their damn names off those school buildings!
Think I’m kidding? George Washington Elementary School in New Orleans is being renamed for Dr. Charles Richard Drew, a prominent black surgeon.
We are seeing political correctness at its worst. Sure slavery was a dark part of our history. But history is what it is and it should not be erased or rewritten. That’s something Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Kim Il Sung did.
I venture to say the majority of blacks in New Orleans don’t have the foggiest idea of who Jefferson Davis and P. G. T. Beauregard were. They probably see their statues as nothing more than repositories for pigeon poop.
And what about those seven Houston schools? Here again, most blacks have no idea who the people they are named after were. I don’t live in the Houston school district, but if I did, I would strongly resent $1.2 million of my tax dollars being wasted to placate a few rabble rousers.
That’s right, a few rabble rousers. I’m willing to bet that the overwhelming majority of blacks are not painfully reminded of slavery and white supremacy whenever they see a statue of Robert E. Lee or “Stonewall” Jackson, or whenever they see their names engraved on school buildings.
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