Confederate Monuments - What's the Big Deal?

On open letter to my friends in New Orleans who are upset about the City Council's decision to remove the Robert E Lee Monument from Lee Circle:  

Dear Friends,

I'm not big on symbols.  Never have been.  I lived in New Orleans almost my entire adult life, and spent much of that time in and around Lee Circle.  I worked out at the Lee Circle YMCA 3 days a week until Katrina forced the facility to shut down, and then still passed it every day when I switched my workouts to the Jewish Community Center uptown after Katrina.  I honestly never gave one second of thought to the person that circle was named after.   Shame on me for that.  More on that later.

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way.  I'm not calling you a racist.  If I thought you were a racist I wouldn't be your friend.  This discussion has absolutely nothing to do with you being racist.  A parallel I like to use to put these discussions in context is sexism.   I don't consider myself to be a sexist (although as a man I think the ultimate arbiters of that fact are the women who know me), but I have come to accept the fact that I have several firmly held convictions that are indeed sexist.  For instance, I don't think women should be professional boxers or mixed martial arts fighters.  I don't think women should be fighting in military combat on the front lines.  I don't think women should pay for dates, open their own car doors, or walk on the outside of the sidewalk.  I prefer women to wear shoes that look impossibly hard to walk in and surely must cause all sorts of pain.   All of these things I believe to the center of my core, and I've come to accept that they are all sexist.  In other words I have come to accept that even though I don't consider myself a sexist, I have a lot of the same beliefs that sexists have.   It's not something that I'm necessarily proud of but it is what it is.

Likewise you don't have to be a racist to have some of the same beliefs that racists have.  And having those beliefs doesn't make you a bad person any more than my having sexist beliefs make me a bad person.  But here is what I try to do because I don't want to be a sexist:  I listen when women talk.   When a woman tells me that a comment I make is sexist of course my first reaction is "no it's not", that's natural.  But that's not what I say, instead I ask "really?  Why is that statement sexist".    And every single time I've asked that question and listened to the answer, I've learned something.   I don't always change my opinion, but I learn something.   So please friends, just for the purposes of this letter, let's get past your natural reaction to be defensive and listen to me tell you why that statue is offensive.

For the sake of brevity, let's put aside the issue of slavery for the purposes of this discussion.   The fact is slavery was legal in this country during Lee's time and many of our founding fathers owned slaves.   I don't think Lee shouldn't be honored in our great city.  And yes, even though I live in Texas now I still consider it my city.  Anybody who wants to challenge my right to call it that is welcome to take a tour with me the next time I'm in town and I'll show you where I've left blood, sweat and tears in order to make New Orleans a better place.   To put it simply, Lee was a traitor who committed treason.  He declined Lincoln's offer to command the Union army before the war started, he resigned his commission to take up arms against an enemy of the United States and he is responsible for more American deaths than any other force in the history of our nation.   More than Bin Laden, more than ISIL, more than Al Queda, more than Hitler.   That's it.  That's why I think he doesn't deserve a monument.   Read those sentences again and then I challenge you to tell me why you think he does deserve a monument.

Deaths From the Battle of Gettysburg

Now I know a lot of you thing this is a black thing.   That African Americans want the statue removed because it's a constant reminder of the Civil War.  This is where I'll go back to me driving by Lee Circle 3 times a week without ever thinking about the significance.  All of you, because you are my friends, know that I'm an unapologetically proud black man.  I try to be socially conscious and aware of all things that affect black people.  I'm purposeful in that pursuit.  I read, I research, I listen to almost anything that impacts black people, positively or negatively.   Knowing that, consider what it says about the legacy of slavery and the Civil War that someone like me, who makes a concerted effort to be socially conscious on issues relating to my heritage, could pass by Lee Circle every day and not once think about how insulting it was to me as a black man in a predominately black city.    How could I not once think about who Jefferson Davis actually was when I was driving down Jeff Davis to get to Xavier University, the only predominantly black Catholic University in the country.  How could I enjoy the TV show "The Dukes of Hazzard" as a child and actually get my parents to buy a replica toy of the "General Lee" car in the show because all of my friends had one.   What kind of psychological damage has been done to my people that we don't even think for a second about monuments to people who took up arms against their country to keep us enslaved?

Some of you are Jewish.  Can you imagine driving past Hitler Circle every day on your way to work and not even once thinking about it?  Some of you are Christian.  How about driving past Satan Boulevard to get to your church every Sunday and not even thinking about it.  My white friends, how would you like your kids playground to be at The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Park?   Can you imagine taking them their to play every day and not even thinking about it?  That's exactly what black New Orleanians have done since the day that statue went up.

Now I've heard several reasons for not removing the statue, the most common being that it's a part of our history and we shouldn't forget it.  That's what museums are for.   That statue isn't a reminder of our past, it's a celebration of it.   It's a monument, which the dictionary says is "erected to commemorate a famous or notable person or event".   The word commemorate means to "recall and show respect for someone or something, to celebrate by doing or building something".  Do we really want to celebrate a traitor who committed treason?   Some of you make the argument that we have bigger issues and this won't help us solve them.   I agree 100%, but having the statue up for all these years hasn't solved them either and it's offensive to more than half the population.  Doesn't it make more sense to remove it?   Some of you say your ancestors fought in the Civil War, and that statue represents their sacrifice for the Confederacy.   I'm sorry, but the truth is your ancestors were traitors to this country.  I understand and respect your wish to honor them, but we as a City should not.  Hitler is somebody's ancestor too.   And finally, my favorite reason is that it would change the city's landscape.   To those people I just say get over it, you will live.

So that's it Friends.   I'll be honest, I don't know why this issue is so important to you.   It concerns me that this bothers you.   I see this one as a no brainer.   I haven't even mentioned the fact that Lee has no ties whatsoever to New Orleans or the State of Louisiana, but I get the feeling that doesn't matter.  But I've got to tell you I'm looking forward to the day when I bring my kids back home and I can go to that circle and tell them the story of the statue that used to be there and why the Mayor and the City Council took it down.   And if you still need your Confederate fix, you can still go take a drive down Jeff Davis.  

Sincerely,


Guy Who Is Glad The Damn Thing Will Be Gone