Confederate Monuments Analysis
Confederate historical monuments require accurate context to embrace all sides and learn from history. The way we look at confederate statues is influenced by where we grew up and what we learned in history classes. Confederate statues hold tremendous historical value to some and cruel disrespect to others. Ifwe are going to satisfy both sides by remembering part of American history and also uncovering our nation's past failures, context must play a part.
Context is the solution to the current conflict. How can we honestly defend or scorn these monuments if education is lacking? Most often, confederate monuments come with inadequate explanations of the person's true part in American history.
While we often think the historical value is divided by who grew up in the "North" and who grew up in the "South", that is not the simple answer. Even U.S. citizens with southern roots have conflicting attitudes with the Confederate statues. As a society, we have to determine what these statues were meant to represent. " ... most of these Confederate monuments were built during the Jim Crow era and in response to the civil rights movement- a sign that they were meant to explicitly represent white supremacy in the South" (Vox.com) "The heyday of monument building, between 1890 and 1920, was also a time of extreme racial …show more content…
As former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice stated "One of the things about statues and monuments and the like is that for those who weren't a part of that history, it can be a reminder." She also stated "Nobody is alive today who remembers the Civil War, but by looking at that, you can trigger what it meant and what it was like. You don't have to honor the purposes of people whose history now shows that they were on the other side of history, but you better be able to remind
Context is the solution to the current conflict. How can we honestly defend or scorn these monuments if education is lacking? Most often, confederate monuments come with inadequate explanations of the person's true part in American history.
While we often think the historical value is divided by who grew up in the "North" and who grew up in the "South", that is not the simple answer. Even U.S. citizens with southern roots have conflicting attitudes with the Confederate statues. As a society, we have to determine what these statues were meant to represent. " ... most of these Confederate monuments were built during the Jim Crow era and in response to the civil rights movement- a sign that they were meant to explicitly represent white supremacy in the South" (Vox.com) "The heyday of monument building, between 1890 and 1920, was also a time of extreme racial …show more content…
As former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice stated "One of the things about statues and monuments and the like is that for those who weren't a part of that history, it can be a reminder." She also stated "Nobody is alive today who remembers the Civil War, but by looking at that, you can trigger what it meant and what it was like. You don't have to honor the purposes of people whose history now shows that they were on the other side of history, but you better be able to remind