Education, not glorification

Today at work I engaged with a coworker, who I believed to be a Trump voter, about statue removals of confederate soldiers and the general removal of public statues of various people in history. I think he saw footage of another statue in North Carolina being forcefully brought down by random people and made his own conclusion that the left was acting like ISIS and other tyrannical governments did in the past. I asked him “But what if these statues weren’t being destroyed, what if they were simply being moved to a private museum?” He didn’t think this was happening, but ultimately agreed that if these statues were put into a private museum instead, as a source of education, that would be fine. In his head, though, I think he felt these were statues being “erased” and that the left was trying to wipe out history. I said I disagreed with him; perhaps a small select few were doing that, but ultimately what I think what some would like to do is change the approach in how these are displayed - as a source of education, not glorification. He still doesn’t think that’s what was happening - but I asked “What if that is what’s happening instead?”

It should be noted that some statues were put up on government property, spent by tax dollars, with the secondary (or maybe even primary) intention to intimidate freed blacks. In Europe, they took a different approach. We can still visit Auschwitz and the Anne Frank house; but they weren’t used to glorify the holocaust, it’s used as both a tool of remembrance as well as education, so we are not doomed to repeat mistakes of the past. (of course Europe also doesn’t protect free speech, but that’s a different can of worms altogether)

Education, not glorification. That difference in approach is key. But also it’s important to know these were paid for by tax dollars, which in my opinion is wrong entirely anyway. If these statues were on private property, have at it. I feel we should have the right to display whatever offensive kind of art we want to on our own property. During Halloween, if I see fake bodies grisly sliced in half hanging from the trees, awesome. But when it’s paid for by money taken by force from thousands and thousands of hands, dictated and spent by a small group of people controlling that money - that (to me) is a different precedent. And to use it make art which subject matter was to preserve slavery is just slavery glorifying more slavery. So yes, take these confederate memorials down if possible; but also make sure it’s not spent by more tax dollars in the process, and bring them into a museum to have our youth learn from the past…so we dare not attempt to repeat it.