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The Truth Shall Set Them Free
PART II
n the ongoing debate
surrounding whether or not statues and monuments from the civil war era should remain standing, the word heritage gets thrown around a lot by individuals who believe the memorials should be left alone. To these individuals (including the current U. S. President Donald Trump) the statues were erected in honor of great men who either fought for a worthy cause or who represented some grand southern ideal.
The reason why they feel this way is due to the fact that they were taught from a young age that individuals like Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee (two of the most infamous leaders of the Confederacy), for example, were honorable men. Even though their actions were considered treasonous against the United States, in the average history class, the insinuation is that the Confederacy was led by upstanding gentlemen who were simply protecting their livelihoods.
This, unfortunately, is one of the major flaws of the American school system and another reason why white supremacy is able to flourish. The horrors that existed throughout the first 300 years of this nation's existence are glossed over and this country's most brutal conflict is summed up as a disagreement between brothers who saw the enslavement of Africans from two separate economic angles.
By omitting all of the gory details of slavery, white school children are left believing that being loyal to either side of the equation depends solely on which region their families have the deepest roots. In this overly simplified version of events, men like Davis and Lee become heroic characters and the confederate battle flag becomes as sacred as a family crest.
History class doesn't teach a child that Davis and Lee were also brutal plantation owners who, more than likely engaged in the same kind of barbaric behavior indulged in by most plantation owners at the time. While most people are aware of the forced labor, beatings and dehumanization of the period, few have an understanding of just how much worse slavery was on those who endured the unbelievable atrocities of the institution.
I often wonder how proud confederate sympathizers would be if they knew the truth about those who they hold in such high regard? Would they still have "rebel" pride if they were taught from early childhood that the men being memorialized in stone routinely raped women, children and men?
Being that slaves were property, it was well understood that slave owners could do as they pleased with their belongings. This meant, if he so desired, the owner could make his way to the slave quarters and have sex with whichever human he held a deed to and no one could stop him.
It has been well documented by former slaves and others who lived on plantations that it wasn't an uncommon occurrence for the master of the house to visit a slave family and have a sexual encounter with the wife one night, the toddler child the next and the husband the following evening. Much like human traffickers of today, this is the kind of perverted prerogative slave captors in the Antebellum south exercised with their victims.
Add to this twisted narrative the accounts of some plantation owners operating breeding farms where slaves were forced to have sex with their own sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters or brothers inside of large wooden containers, while wearing burlap sacks over their heads to obscure their vision, and it becomes clear that the men who benefited the most from slavery were the worst kinds of monsters.
When the discussion comes up about the integrity of men like Davis and Lee it should be noted that they weren't only fighting for their economic survival, they were also willing to shed blood in order to continue a lifestyle where sodomizing and pedophilia could be engaged in freely and lawfully. Those who want to claim the "stars and bars" as their heritage should know that it's impossible to embrace such a legacy without coming in direct contact with the slimy filth that coats it as well.
There is little doubt that once a child is introduced to this level of understanding the myth of white supremacy would cease to exist. But, until the light of truth finds its way into classrooms everywhere, we really won't know for sure.
To be continued in part 3.
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K. K. K. In The White House
In a stern Executive Order, President Donald Trump protected all Confederate statues in the United States. In the midst of a Black Lives Matter movement that has called attention to the hurt Blacks feel by the presence of the Confederate flag and statues honoring traitors to the United States Union for the defense of the institution of slavery, which comes on the heels of the public lynching of Ahmaud Arbery by a retired po- lice officer and George Floyd by an active duty police of- ficer.
Instead of issuing an Executive Order that places the statues in Confederate or Traitors museums where they belong, Trump defends the 155-year continued as- sault on Black folks’ psyche by flaunting the statues in public venues, many of them paid for by Black taxpay- ers’ money.
Imagine Germany posting statues of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi Party leaders of concentration camps all over Germany. Moreover, suppose they sanctioned raising a Swastika flag over their sports arenas, govern- ment buildings, and other public venues. Now, just sup- pose you are Jewish, how would you feel?
Well, Black Americans feel the same way about the Confederate traitors who owned slaves for 300 years and fought to maintain the institution of slavery, as well as the Confederate flag that was used to represent the Confederate idea of human slavery. Black people were just as traumatized by slavery, Jim Crow and seg- regation as Jews were traumatized by living and dying in European concentration camps.
Even though it is German history and heritage, you don’t see Germany promoting the era of the Holocaust and its concentration camps with Nazi symbols and statues. In fact, Germany has instituted several laws that prevent the display and sale of the swastika flag, swastika symbols, and pictures of Adolf Hitler and the use of hate-speech.
Indeed, pictures of Hitler and Nazi symbols are un- lawful and can draw up to three years in prison.
In “inciting hatred” legislation that protects “seg- ments of the population or individuals because of their belonging to ...a national, racial, religious group or a
group defined by their ethnic origins, assaults on the human dignity of others by in- sulting, maliciously maligning...or defaming of the population shall be liable to im- prisonment from 3 to 5 months.
“Misogynist” abuse and holocaust denial are covered as well. While Germany’s constitution protects freedom of speech, it does not protect outlawed speech, and it applies to the internet and social media. Moreover, Austria, United Kingdom, Ire- land, Sweden, Finland, and Russia have similar laws. Too bad Trump didn’t talk to Putin about that before he left Russia.
Currently, no national law exists that prohibits lynching in the United States. Add to the daunting fact that Trump’s Executive Order threatens anyone who effaces a Confederate statue with a ten-year prison sentence, and you begin to get the idea that the K.K.K. is no longer in the pine woods of Georgia, but has moved into the Rose Garden of the White House.
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