In the 1861 Cornerstone Speech, the newly formed Confederate Vice President
Alexander H. Stephens described the new
government’s ideology as “[Our new government’s]
foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests,
upon the great truth that the negro is not
equal to the white man. That slavery
subordination to the superior race is his
natural and normal condition.”
Do you dig that baby?
Let’s just start with this cocktail conversation tidbit of
US history: the traitorous Confederacy was
composed of 11 states, yet, still, there are
Confederate monuments in 31 states. This
hideous fact underscores the uncomfortable
truth: there are Confederate sympathizers,
millions of US citizens who empathize and
support the base core ideals of White supremacy. These statues are there because groups of white
Southerners wanted to have a certain view of
history legitimized,
institutionalized, and normalized.
The Confederacy isn’t merely a long-gone geographical area; it’s a deeply
embedded, heartfelt, and enthusiastic racist
mindset. Look no further than a U.S. school
board in Shenandoah County, Virginia, which
will vote on Thursday whether to restore
previously removed Confederate names to two
schools, potentially becoming the first
community in the nation to reinstate such
names.
Among the more than 60 U.S.
schools formerly named after Confederate
figures that have changed their name since
2020, none have reinstated the Confederate
names, so far….
The motion would undo the
school board’s decision in 2020 stripping a
high school and elementary school of the names
of three military leaders of the pro-slavery
Southern states in the U.S. Civil War:
Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Turner
Ashby.
A local conservative coalition
asked the Shenandoah County school board in
April to reinstate the names, insisting that
doing so was “essential to honor our
community’s heritage.”
The renegade Confederacy’s only President, Jefferson Davis, said: “African slavery, as it exists
in the United States, is a moral, a social,
and a political blessing.” That’s the heritage, my friend. It’s impossible to separate
symbols of the Confederacy from the values of
White supremacy.
In the early 1900s, states were enacting Jim Crow laws to
disenfranchise black Americans. The vast
majority of the memorials were erected not to
honor fallen soldiers, but specifically to
further ideals of white supremacy. In the
middle of the century, the civil rights
movement pushed back against Jim Crow
segregation, and more appeared in response to
the desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces and
the Supreme Court’s decision to integrate
schools. These monuments were erected to usher
in an era of White supremacist minority rule
which we see today being resurrected by Donald
Trump’s angry Make America White/Great
Again cult.
Geez, that translates into
there being Confederates in virtually every
school, every hospital, police, and fire
station. The bank, the grocery store,
convenience store, McDonalds and Burger King.
Scary isn’t it?
And let’s be blunt, all Trump supporters
aren’t Confederates, but all Confederates
support Trump and all Confederates, by definition, are racist. 7th-grade level translation:
millions and millions of Americans are Confederates, and thus White supremacists.
Perhaps the most chilling reality is that this
21st-century Confederacy lies roughly 15
minutes outside of America’s largest 50
cities. From coast to coast, from the
snow-capped Rockies to the White Sands of Key
Largo, you can find Confederates.
Anywhere White folks are exclusively clustered, it’s all a
Trumpian Confederate stronghold. Above and
below the infamous Mason/Dixon Line.
And you know I’m not lying.
To see more evidence of the Confederacy coming back to
life, look no further than West Virginia where Derrick Evans, a former West Virginia state lawmaker who served
prison time for his role in the riot said
Friday that he hopes to return to the scene of
his crime as an elected official. Evans
live-streamed himself on Facebook cheering on what he described as a “revolution” at the
Capitol.
Evans escalated the chaos by
egging on the rioters around him. In a
since-deleted cell phone video that was widely
shared online, he narrated the riot for his
30,000 Facebook followers, cheered on the
crowd, and fist-bumped rioters as he and the
rest of the mob swarmed the Capitol.
“I can’t even explain what is
happening right now, how amazing this is to
see in person. I am in awe. The revolution has
started!”
The Republican Party is
truthfully and honestly the United States
Confederate Party, obviously dedicated to the
“Lost Cause” and resurrecting a way of
thinking, of living, a way of life wherein
Black people answer to White folks on some
twisted and preferred “Jim Crow” level.
Joe Biden said a few years ago,
“They want to put you back in chains,” and
sadly so many Black folks poo-pooed the
comment, White liberals shook their heads, and
Trumpian-minded Confederates, masquerading as
Republicans, attacked him.
Perhaps Joe knows his culture,
and his people far better than you do.
