Tilting at Confederate Windmills
In May of this year, a friend wrote: Now that Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington are out of favor, I assume we'll have to drop Memorial Day too. People interested in bringing about real equality in American society should not be tilting at Confederate windmills. They should be working to make the present situation better.
After warning him that I had plenty to say in reply, and briefly worrying that perhaps I'd inferred too much from what I took to be his position (and trusting that he would take the time to clarify where I may have overstepped), I jumped in.
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"Friend, I have no quibble with your believing that Robert E. Lee is out of favor, as well he should be for taking such a prominent role in defending slavery. But do you actually believe that Jefferson and Washington are also no longer as accepted? Perhaps because their being slaveholders is more widely acknowledged than it once was?
"I know the current occupant of the White House has more than once lumped in the names of Jefferson and Washington with those of inadequately disgraced Confederates to suggest, I suppose, that the forces of political correctness have this time gone too far. I'm surprised to see you do the same. Do you really feel Presidents 1 and 3 have fallen into such disfavor among the People?
"Secondly, It's a shame you imply that working to remove Confederate memorials is quixotic, a viewpoint clearly more likely to be held by older, highly privileged white men. As one of those myself, I hesitate to speak for people of color, but I have tried to imagine what it must feel like to live in a town whose white citizens once erected statues - decades later still standing in the most public of places - meant to honor men who decided to wage war against their fellow citizens in order to preserve their right to keep black people in bondage.
"You also imply, I think, that we should either a) work to remove monuments to the Lost Cause (so-called), or b) work for social justice. I believe both projects are important, and can and should move forward simultaneously.
"I have read for the first time today Ta-Nehisi Coates' essay from 2017 in which he calls Trump the first white president. I urge you to give it a look when you get the chance. It's full of insights that would give most conscientious white folk pause, and plenty to ponder."
After warning him that I had plenty to say in reply, and briefly worrying that perhaps I'd inferred too much from what I took to be his position (and trusting that he would take the time to clarify where I may have overstepped), I jumped in.
-- --
"Friend, I have no quibble with your believing that Robert E. Lee is out of favor, as well he should be for taking such a prominent role in defending slavery. But do you actually believe that Jefferson and Washington are also no longer as accepted? Perhaps because their being slaveholders is more widely acknowledged than it once was?
"I know the current occupant of the White House has more than once lumped in the names of Jefferson and Washington with those of inadequately disgraced Confederates to suggest, I suppose, that the forces of political correctness have this time gone too far. I'm surprised to see you do the same. Do you really feel Presidents 1 and 3 have fallen into such disfavor among the People?
"Secondly, It's a shame you imply that working to remove Confederate memorials is quixotic, a viewpoint clearly more likely to be held by older, highly privileged white men. As one of those myself, I hesitate to speak for people of color, but I have tried to imagine what it must feel like to live in a town whose white citizens once erected statues - decades later still standing in the most public of places - meant to honor men who decided to wage war against their fellow citizens in order to preserve their right to keep black people in bondage.
"You also imply, I think, that we should either a) work to remove monuments to the Lost Cause (so-called), or b) work for social justice. I believe both projects are important, and can and should move forward simultaneously.
"I have read for the first time today Ta-Nehisi Coates' essay from 2017 in which he calls Trump the first white president. I urge you to give it a look when you get the chance. It's full of insights that would give most conscientious white folk pause, and plenty to ponder."
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