Setting the Record Straight: Removing Racist Statues is Not Erasing History
During the time that Ivy Taylor was on the city council for the City of San Antonio, she opposed the removal of a racist statue honoring the slave owner soldiers at Travis Park. She was wrong to the 100th degree. In fact, this was one of the reasons she lost her election for a second run for mayor. She listened to the lies of the conservatives that were relying on the propaganda of the “Lost Cause.” The so-called “Lost Cause” was invented history which was a revisionist and fake history that sanitized the Civil War by downplaying the role of slavery and white supremacy.
Ivy Tayor apparently never studied the false history of the “Lost Cause.”
Why Historians Reject the “Lost Cause” Narrative
Removing Confederate statues is in fact a correction of the distorted narrative that was set up to deny the role of slavery in the minds of many. It apparently worked on some, even a few confused Black and Brown folk; not to forget the thousands of Whites that were bamboozled by these statues. Removing Confederate statues is not “erasing history” and can be viewed as the difference between the historical record and invented public honor. Confederate statues are primarily tools for the false commemoration of the southern states in their war to maintain slavery. Statues are not historical records like books or archives in a museum. Removing a Confederate statue does not remove a figure from the history books. Removal of these white supremacist symbols is simply and end the act of publicly honoring slave owners and their lost cause.
Hitler and the Difference Between History and Honor
In Germany, statues of Hitler were removed as his name cannot be honored by any logical thinking person. The history of his crimes, and the holocaust, is still in museums and in history books. It is important to note that many of the Confederate monuments were erected during the Jim Crow era, and as an attack against the Civil Rights Movement. These statues, and the racist attacks that went along with erecting them, sole aim was reinforce white supremacy and intimidate Black citizens as they fought to get the right to vote, end segregation, and make democracy a reality after centuries of injustice.
“What American Communities Decide is Worthy of Civic Honor”
Many removed statues are relocated to museums, private property, or archives where they can be displayed with full and real historical context. This cannot be done in public parks by honoring racists and the glorification of slavery. Society’s values evolve over time, and many of us now realize that the southern cause and the real reason for the Civil War was the perpetuation of slavery and not about “southern heritage.” According to the American Historical Association (AHA), “To remove such monuments is neither to ‘change’ history nor ‘erase’ it. What changes with such removals is what American communities decide is worthy of civic honor.”
White supremacist mouth pieces, like Robert E. Lee and others, deserve no honor in public places. In fact, many believe that slave owners should have been executed or thrown in jail after the Civil War. Additionally, the AHA points out that, “Nearly all monuments to the Confederacy and its leaders were erected without anything resembling a democratic process. Regardless of their representation in the actual population in any given constituency, African Americans had no voice and no opportunity to raise questions about the purposes or likely impact of the honor accorded to the builders of the Confederate States of America.”
Be wary of anyone, Black, White, or otherwise, that makes the false argument that removing statues that honor hatred is erasing history.
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