ant wrote:DWill wrote:You've said some confusing things lately about race and racism, ant. Now are you saying that statues of Confederate generals or slave owners have no connection to racism? Or is it simply the tearing down that you're against?
I said no such thing.. thanks for asking though.
No, you didn't say such a thing, but with the talk about Gandhi and Mohammed statues, it seemed natural to wonder what you think about the immediate matter at hand, in terms of statuary.
I am against the indiscriminate tearing down of statues without first having a rational discussion about their historical context and what we can learn from each. I am against blind and mute barbarianism.
OK, but you still haven't answered the question. It's your right not to.
Are you against that suggestion or are you in favor of this type of leftist banana republic behavior?
It's complicated, since blind and mute barbarism is also a big part of what the statues represent to people. ('Banana republic behavior' strikes the wrong note for me, just by the way). I'm not in favor of toppling statues, if by that we mean, would I be willing to participate in that act? I wouldn't be. But that doesn't quite settle the matter. I have little skin in the game; the oppression the statues signify wasn't directed against people like me. I wish they were never erected, but my regret isn't deeply felt. How would I feel if I had slave ancestry
and I felt sure that "rational discussion" wasn't going to happen or if it did, wouldn't result in the removal of the images? It's very well known that African Americans find the statues threatening, but they're mostly still up. So what would discussion do?
In real life, I'll do about anything just to be able to get along with people, which I'm not always proud of, and not in this case especially. I haven't protested about the two Confederate statues in my town, a mile away, or written letters to the newspaper. After Floyd's killing, both were spray-painted. I didn't go around yelling, "Whoopee!"
Btw,
I will be responding to your earlier reply to me wherein you are toeing the line of accusing me of not reading the links I post.
It is almost condescending of you to imply that I am not
You can take that off your list if you want. By "if we read a little carefully," I didn't mean to say you hadn't read the articles. You might have misinterpreted the intent of the writers, if I'm right in what I said.