How Confederate Monuments Can Be Used to Fight Racism
By: Francis M. Garcia Fernandez
Tags: Politics, Confederate Monuments, Protest, Racism, Government

protesters gather around the Robert E. Lee Memorial, Richmond, VA | image by Alexander Jawfox Unsplash

Since the George Floyd protests of 2020, more than 48 Confederate monuments have been removed due to demands by protesters. These statues and other symbols represent the foundation of oppression and systemic racism in the United States. However, Lawrence A. Kuznar, Ph.D. Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, argues that “removing Confederate statues amounts to whitewashing [American] history” and should be utilized to “educate children on the cost forebears paid for our freedom.” Is there some truth to this? How can monuments built to celebrate the work of proponents of slavery and the Civil War benefit our current state of race relations?

Sheffield Hale, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Atlanta History Center, also advocated for Confederate statues to stay because they can enable Americans to have a conversation about the past and our current broken system. Opposition to these statues had increased before the George Floyd protests, but the 2020 movement led to the removal of even more monuments even though these symbols of hatred did not directly cause the death of George Floyd. Comparably, the House of Representatives passed bill 7217 in July to remove Confederate statues from Capitol Hill. We can understand why the American public and lawmakers seek to dismantle Confederate symbols, but there are other ways of changing a culture of racism than removing stone artifacts.

Ellis Cose, Senior Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), explains a new initiative of utilizing these monuments for education: “Plaques and other material [can] point out that these men were traitors, not American heroes, and that their ugly legacy haunts us still…Those statues could remind us of the catastrophic consequences of not putting bigotry aside.” Take for instance a plaque next to the Peace Monument in Atlanta, Georgia:

“This monument should no longer stand as a memorial to white brotherhood; rather, it should be seen as an artifact representing a shared history in which millions of Americans were denied civil and human rights.”

These plaques are only the beginning of what historical associations and communities can do to re-educate Americans on a history of racism and hard-fought progress. Maintaining these distinct monuments may feel morally wrong, but they have the potential to showcase the juxtaposition of America’s stained past and a more just future.

When we look at other symbols or events of injustice in this country, such as 9/11, the genocide of Native Americans, or the Civil War itself, their current locations are commemorated and respected. The American spirit is strong enough to form a more accurate retrospect while also acknowledging the very real impact that these events have had on our nation and its people.

Human rights activist and scientist Geoff Palmer warns, “We don’t want to leave this so that people looking back in 50 years will say: you know, they took the statues down, why didn’t they do something about racism?”

As Palmer alludes, the removal of racist statues does not remove systemic racism alongside. According to a poll by The Economist/YouGov, 61% of Black Americans believe that statues of Confederate generals on public property should be removed. Should lawmakers listen to the racial group that was most affected by the work of the Confederates or promote a program of re-education and empowerment?