Harmless Heritage?

When I was on the cusp of adolescence, my father worked in Florida for a few years. One summer, and over a few school year vacations, we drove South from our New York home to be with him.

On one trip, we stopped in a restaurant in a southern state – I no longer remember exactly where we were.  As my family was led to a table and presented with menus, I stared at the décor on the walls.  I did not understand it all.  The entire restaurant was festooned with Confederate flags and other memorabilia related to the Civil War.  I could not wrap my head around what I was seeing.  I recall asking, “Don’t they know they lost the war?”  It never occurred to me that people would view losing a war as part of their heritage to celebrate, especially when the war was fought over a practice now universally considered not only to be wrong, but also morally repugnant.  I no longer remember my parents’ reply, but I do recall getting the impression we were not in a good place to discuss my question.

I still don’t understand it.  I don’t understand communities commissioning and erecting statues of the leaders of the Secession, decades after the close of the war.  The Robert E. Lee statue that became the flashpoint in Charlottesville, VA was commissioned in 1917 and not erected until 1924.  Its unveiling was celebrated by a Confederate reunion and a parade of 100 cadets from the Virginia Military Institute in Confederate colors.

Statues of individuals on public lands are meant to celebrate, commemorate and honor the person and their achievements.  They are meant to reflect what is, or was, important to a community.  Regardless of their personal attributes- great leaders, stellar integrity, wonderful battle tacticians- it is plain that all the Confederate generals and leaders are remembered both today and when their statues were built, for their role in that bloody war –which they lost.  Post- war, latter-day erection of these statues glorifying Confederate leaders are plain statements that the sentiments guiding their secession are worth remembering.

I don’t believe removing these statutes is “erasing history”.  Teach all the history you want- how slavery developed in America, how the agricultural states depended on it, how its immorality infected the founding of the United States, how this infection led to the political self-amputation of those who depended on it, how the anti-slavery movement gained momentum, and the number of people who fought and died to end, and to preserve, a reprehensible practice.

I believe these monuments are both reminders of a past that is still longed-for, and a means of intimidation.  I am a nice white lady who grew up in and lived almost my entire life in suburban NY.  I don’t pretend to understand what it feels like to be black in America, or in the American South.  But I feel that public monuments to “leaders” who broke apart the United States and fought and caused others to fight for the “right” to enslave other human beings, must send a message, subtle or not, to at least some black community members who live or work in their vicinity.  And that message is not positive or empowering:  it is “you don’t belong here; you are not equal to us”.

If you don’t believe that, think about this.  What if a city decided to erect a monument to “The Unknown Bus Driver”, to celebrate the city employees who directed all non-white people to the back of the bus?  I think the intended message is the same as all of those Confederate statues: black people should be treated as less than whites. I think virtually everyone can see how celebrating the bus drivers and their actions is morally wrong and cruel.  And if you cannot, you belong with the white supremacist groups who marched, and yes intimidated, people with “harmless heritage”.