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Baltimore removes Confederate Monuments overnight

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Eusis

Member
We're not going to forget our past by destroying some, most, or even all of the hundreds upon hundreds of confederate monuments that exist. Books exist. Pictures exist. Videos exist.

Many of these monuments were produced so far after the Civil War and in such quantity that it's akin to suggesting we need to put every single modern day swastika flag in a museum. Monuments to the Confederacy are still being erected in the 21st century!

It's mass-produced racist trash.

Yes, some of them can go to a museum and serve as a reminder of our nation's continuing problem of white supremacy, but do not fall into the trap of thinking that these things need to be preserved.

They don't.

We'll never forget.
How that statue crumpled should say fucking everything, honestly. If that were a serious monument to be proud of it'd have probably held together better, not practically collapse on itself. Especially in such a way that it became more museum worthy then than the other 100 years it had been up.
 
There is. This is the proper way.

Their really is no proper way to take down monuments built to honor people who literally fought for slavery. Its not like these were in a museum or historical sites where they can be put in proper context and are being torn down these statues are in states that fought for the union and even in some states that did not even exist. Also think about what it took for people to even think about removing these statues. It literally took absolute vile displays of hatred by literally Nazi's, KKK members and white supremacists, the lost of a women's life and at least 18 other people being injured and the president being a racist surrounded Nazi's and White supremacists.
 

jelly

Member
bruce-willis.gif
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
Hopefully they remove them and put them in a museum storeroom somewhere.

While they celebrate something bad, they are still a part of the United States history.

Weird statement...i dont need to see a bunch of Hitler sand Goebbels statues to understand that they are part of Germanys past.

I dont get why so many people are being so extra defensive about statues of human garbage. Doesnt make sense to me.
 

Mimosa97

Member
Not american and I only know Baltimore from The Wire. Isn't Baltimore in the " north " ? And isn't Baltimore a predominantly black city? Why would they have statues celebrating the confederacy?
 

Eusis

Member
Weird statement...i dont need to see a bunch of Hitler sand Goebbels statues to understand that they are part of Germanys past.

I dont get why so many people are being so extra defensive about statues of human garbage. Doesnt make sense to me.
It's a type of centrist thinking I think. Not the dumb fuck "well maybe the Nazis have a point" type of centrist thinking, but "one side hates these statues, the other wants to keep them, why not come together in the middle and store them in a historical museum?" Which isn't too bad of an idea in theory, but in practice there's a lot of this shit, and the vast majority is cheap garbage with some fringe stuff either actually noteworthy (mainly the mountain carving it seems) or outright misplaced (something to Robert E. Lee in Brooklyn what the shit?)

Also perhaps not wanting to just employ wanton destruction and even a bit of a hoarding mentality; it got MADE, so it should be PRESERVED.

I do think some sort of site to record this stuff would be acceptable, but it's most important to get this crap off of public land. If that requires destruction, due it.
 

JettDash

Junior Member
Not american and I only know Baltimore from The Wire. Isn't Baltimore in the " north " ? And isn't Baltimore a predominantly black city? Why would they have statues celebrating the confederacy?

Maryland was a slave state and one of the border states between the north and south though Lincoln managed to keep them in the Union.

And yes, Baltimore is mostly black. The statues were put there by white supremacists to protest black people.
 
Not american and I only know Baltimore from The Wire. Isn't Baltimore in the " north " ? And isn't Baltimore a predominantly black city? Why would they have statues celebrating the confederacy?

Maryland was still a slave state (but didn't secede) when war broke out and the city wasn't that far from where all the famous battles of the civil war happened.
 

Mimosa97

Member
Maryland was a slave state and one of the border states between the north and south though Lincoln managed to keep them in the Union.

And yes, Baltimore is mostly black. The statues were put there by white supremacists to protest black people.

This is so fucked up...

Maryland was still a slave state (but didn't secede) when war broke out and the city wasn't that far from where all the famous battles of the civil war happened.

Yeah now that I've googled it I can see on the map that it has a strategic location
 
Hopefully they remove them and put them in a museum storeroom somewhere.

While they celebrate something bad, they are still a part of the United States history.

As I understand it, quite a lot of these items come from way after the Reconstruction period, and were put up by racists as a "fuck you" to civil rights. Maryland in particular never seceded, and according to Wikipedia 49% of Marylanders were free blacks by 1860. It's therefore rather weird that any city of Maryland would have a statue honouring its nonexistent Confederate soldiers.
 

AMUSIX

Member
To reinforce just how recent most of these monuments are (and, for some years, what the spikes correspond to) here's a little graphic. As someone said, these monuments are NOT part of this nation's history, they were primarily used as a message to minorities to sit down and shut up. That massive spike after Plessy v Fergusen is no coincidence, especially with most being in front of courthouses. Then you have the huge flood of school-based ones during the Civil Rights movement.
Nnuo6Wl.jpg


source:
https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/whoseheritage_splc.pdf
 

PillarEN

Member
Most of these monuments were raised during the Civil Rights movement to tell black people to know their place.

I was under the impression that most of these statues were raised from the late 1800s till WW1? Mainly by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Edit: I see that info graphic with the link. Now I'm wiser. I mean the majority was during the time I specified but it still continued at a smaller rate for the rest of time.
 

Khoryos

Member
Not american and I only know Baltimore from The Wire. Isn't Baltimore in the " north " ? And isn't Baltimore a predominantly black city? Why would they have statues celebrating the confederacy?

Maybe consider how a city would come to have a large historical black population?

As I understand it, quite a lot of these items come from way after the Reconstruction period, and were put up by racists as a "fuck you" to civil rights. Maryland in particular never seceded, and according to Wikipedia 49% of Marylanders were free blacks by 1860. It's therefore rather weird that any city of Maryland would have a statue honouring its nonexistent Confederate soldiers.

See, *that* is exactly the historical context that I think should be acknowledged by museums. Not the Civil War, but the context of their erection.
 

JettDash

Junior Member
Many of these statues are not actually historic, and are more recent.

We already have a lot of Confederate stuff preserved in museums, too. So, it'll be fine.

The statue of Robert E Lee and Stonewell Jackson that was just removed in Baltimore was dedicated in 1948. So closer to now than the end of the war.
 

Roronoa Zoro

Gold Member
Hopefully they remove them and put them in a museum storeroom somewhere.

While they celebrate something bad, they are still a part of the United States history.

My thoughts. Just because a monument is up doesn't mean it's a positive thing, but at least it keeps people from forgetting things like slavery or a civil war. I know we're not going to forget those things completely but it's a constant reminder of the worst parts which as a history major people overlook
 
See, *that* is exactly the historical context that I think should be acknowledged by museums. Not the Civil War, but the context of their erection.

A photo of a statue finally being torn down by people impatient with the glacial pace of change would have more educational value, in my opinion. Fetishizing indifferent statuary isn't a good move for a museum with only a limited allotment of space to tell a story.
 

Jabronium

Member
At least a ray of sunshine still breaks through the clouds every once in a while. Good on them, and here's to other that hopefully quickly follow suit.
 

Mahonay

Banned
My thoughts. Just because a monument is up doesn't mean it's a positive thing, but at least it keeps people from forgetting things like slavery or a civil war. I know we're not going to forget those things completely but it's a constant reminder of the worst parts which as a history major people overlook
Just above you Lemongrab posted how two of the statues were erected in 1948. Some of these statues have zero historic significance in relation to the actual Civil War, and can be fucking smelted down for all I care.
 
Hopefully they remove them and put them in a museum storeroom somewhere.

While they celebrate something bad, they are still a part of the United States history.

95% of these are low qualities pieces of trash made 50-90 years after the civil war and have ZERO value historically.

No sane museum curator would waste their time.
 
My thoughts. Just because a monument is up doesn't mean it's a positive thing, but at least it keeps people from forgetting things like slavery or a civil war. I know we're not going to forget those things completely but it's a constant reminder of the worst parts which as a history major people overlook

Thing is, we're still fucking black people over constantly. They don't need statues of Confederates to remind them.
 
Am I wrong in thinking Maryland wasn't even in the Confederacy? Why would they have Confederate monuments at all in the first place? Makes you wonder why they went up in the first place, especially in Baltimore
Not really, it's obvious
 

III-V

Member
My thoughts. Just because a monument is up doesn't mean it's a positive thing, but at least it keeps people from forgetting things like slavery or a civil war. I know we're not going to forget those things completely but it's a constant reminder of the worst parts which as a history major people overlook

Wouldn't a statue of Lincoln remind us of the same thing?

I swear people really do not understand the purpose of these statues.

Maybe we should erect some Hitler statues so Jews don't forget their history.
 

JettDash

Junior Member
Am I wrong in thinking Maryland wasn't even in the Confederacy? Why would they have Confederate monuments at all in the first place? Makes you wonder why they went up in the first place, especially in Baltimore
Not really, it's obvious

Maryland was a slave state but not part of the confederacy.
 

Giga Man

Member
To reinforce just how recent most of these monuments are (and, for some years, what the spikes correspond to) here's a little graphic. As someone said, these monuments are NOT part of this nation's history, they were primarily used as a message to minorities to sit down and shut up. That massive spike after Plessy v Fergusen is no coincidence, especially with most being in front of courthouses. Then you have the huge flood of school-based ones during the Civil Rights movement.
Nnuo6Wl.jpg


source:
https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/whoseheritage_splc.pdf

Jesus Christ. We have a lot of work to do.
 

Fred-87

Member
Yeah, and I guess German cities should maintain statues of Nazis since they are a part of German history. Jesus H. Christ, history can be still taught and remembered without keeping statues in place of some vile human beings. Status are to commemorate individuals.

Actually in Germany they keep their history intact. To be able to never forget of a dark past.
 
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