Is it wrong to remove Confederate statues?

Removing these monuments and statues seems like white washing the past to me. There have even been significant calls to tear down the statue of Christopher Columbus in New York because of the way he treated natives. Forgetting your past, no matter how dark it is, is not the way to deal with issues today. What do you think?

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SW-User

I don't think tearing down a statue is tearing down the past. The events still occurred with or without the statue. They serve as a monument to what is being depicted...not a historical account. Does a confederate statue bother me when I walk past it? I really don't give it a second glance. Can't say I get worked up enough to think I need to try knocking a statue down. But I do believe it stands as a tribute to a part of history that just doesn't really need to be glorified. It takes on even more meaning when you research the times most of the confederate statues were erected. Most went up in the same period that Jim Crowe laws were passed and later when the Civil Rights Act was passed. I don't really see them as history but as more of a statement.

Fernie · F

@SW-Userthose statues celebrate the evil that occurred...what part of that don't people get?

SW-User

@Fernie I get that people have ancestry...I myself have ancestors that fought in the confederacy. The state I live in has more confederate monuments than any other state. I don't think my lineage terrible for it....sometimes it's just found down the road that people were on the wrong side of history.

Fernie · F

@SW-User you're white huh

SW-User

@Fernie Yes I'm white

Fernie · F

@SW-User yep..no clue what these statues actually represent to non whites

SW-User

@Fernie To most I'd guess they don't mean a damn thing. It's all pretty ironic too. Take Robert E. Lee for example...if one read up his history and the kind of man history claimed him to be? A champion of healing the country after the war was said and done. He would have wanted his own statue taken down if he knew it created a divide.

bijouxbroussard · F

@SW-User A descendant of Stonewall. Jackson said that while he wasn't ashamed of his family he was ashamed of what the statue had come to represent and felt things would be better off with it removed.

SW-User

@bijouxbroussard I can agree with that.