Since Black Lives Matter protests began in response to Columbuss legacy, a number of statues of him have been removed. I cannot see myself pulling down a statue in that way. Starting with the Reconstruction, we see them being used as a way to control public spaces and maintain white supremacy alongside other things like lynching, controlling school curriculums, etc. Pros. [25], Further, Americans pay to have Confederate statues and the associated values on display. 3. Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to keep political statues in public spaces is a complex one. On the other side, opponents of the statues argue that they celebrate white supremacy. Accuracy and availability may vary. The monuments go up because, without Washington, there likely would not have been an American nation. Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals. All rights reserved. These battles have a strong historical context, as they were influenced by a very Venezuelan tradition: Bolivarian political historicism. It started in the 1890s with the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Statues could be built to honor George Washington Carver, Madame CJ Walker, Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Owens, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ruby Bridges, Mae Jemison, Charles Richard Drew, Mary Jackson, and countless others. There are many other people who deserve statues that better represent the countrys historical progress and diversity. Statues elevate a person from a historical event rather than demystify it. John Daniel Davidson, Political Editor at The Federalist, explained, That they were wrong about slavery does not excuse us today from the burden of trying to understand what motivated them to fightand what motivated them and their families to undertake a flurry of monument-building decades later as the surviving veterans began to die off A more mature society would recognize that the past is always with you and must always be kept in mind. By removing them, we can censor, whitewash, and potentially forget about the history. Accessed April 27, 2023. https://www.procon.org/headlines/historic-statue-removal-top-3-pros-cons/, Whose Heritage: Public Symbols of the Confederacy, 1. [49], Author Sophia A. Nelson, JD, who notes she is the granddaughter of a slave, states that she does not fear 150-year-old statues of old dead white men. Nelson argues that her classmates at Washington & Lee University didnt hate [black students] because there were statues of Robert E. Lee or George Washington (our nations first President and a slave owner) on campus. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These statues are a reminder of our history, both good and bad.
