There has been a lot of debate recently around the presence of the confederate flag at various government buildings along with war memorials to Confederate figures. Below are a couple of recent articles on the topic. These raise issues about how we should treat the past through these memorials and whether we should remove or edit them once the figures, or the ideas they represent, become unpopular.
Confederacy: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
“Confederate symbols are still celebrated despite the ugly history they symbolize. John Oliver suggests some representations of southern pride that involve less racism and more Stephen Colbert.”
Baltimore City commission recommends removal of two Confederate monuments
New Orleans votes to remove Confederate, Civil War monuments
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/17/us/new-orleans-confederate-monuments-vote/
Richmond mayor vows to confront tributes to Southern Civil War figures
In England, a similar debate is happening over a statue of Cecil Rhodes.
- ‘Black lives are cheap at Oxford’: Furor follows decision to keep Cecil Rhodes statue
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/01/29/black-lives-are-cheap-at-oxford-furor-follows-decision-to-keep-cecil-rhodes-statue/?mc_cid=84d899c964&mc_eid=34e2887073 - Over one third of Oxford students want Cecil Rhodes statue removedhttp://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jan/15/oxford-students-cecil-rhodes-statue-removed?mc_cid=84d899c964&mc_eid=34e2887073
- Removing visual reminders of unsavoury history is not the best way to confront the past.http://www.historytoday.com/rupert-fitzsimmons/rhodes-must-not-fall?mc_cid=84d899c964&mc_eid=34e2887073
New York City Just Removed a Statue of Surgeon J. Marion Sims From Central Park. Here’s Why
“With Sims, the controversy is not about the merits of his medical achievements, but how he accomplished them. Though Sims founded New York’s first women’s hospital and innovated new surgical techniques, his success came at the cost of unethical medical treatment of enslaved women in the antebellum era.”
http://time.com/5243443/nyc-statue-marion-sims/
Podcast: The Falling of the Lenins
“The same protests that brought down that Lenin statue eventually brought about a new government in Ukraine, which sought to eliminate all physical reminders of communism and Russia. But it hasn’t been easy, logistically or politically, because removing these things erases history that is still important to some Ukrainians. Furthermore, communist symbols are very pervasive in the built environment — they can be found on buildings, bridges and other infrastructure.”
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-falling-of-the-lenins/
Other Posts on this topic
https://toktopics.com/tag/monuments/
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