(05-28-2019 04:50 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  We seem to have established, at least in the minds of some, that the erection of a monument to the leader of a rebellion is a big FU to the other side. So what message were we sending England with the erection of the Washington Monument, the naming of the Capitol City, the carving on Mt. Rushmore, and even the erection of the Statue of Liberty? Were all of those big FUs?

How about the establishment of the Alamo as a shrine? Big FU to Mexico?

And I am still trying to figure out what the presence of a Che poster in an Obama election HQ meant. FU? To who?

In short, I am wondering is there is any basis to assume the statues were put up as any sort of an FU. So far, all I see are assumptions.

There are statues of Lincoln everywhere, even though his positions on blacks would certainly qualify him as a racist by 2019 standards. Are they big FUs? To who?

I think Lad overstepped on this assumption.

I was the one who made the "F U" comment. And I never implied that monuments are automatically an "F U" to the opposing side.

Many of these monuments were put up during times when black people were fighting for civil rights. Many were put in seemingly unconnected locations... as you have alluded to regarding New Orleans.

https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544266880...ist-future


""Most of the people who were involved in erecting the monuments were not necessarily erecting a monument to the past," said Jane Dailey, an associate professor of history at the University of Chicago."But were rather, erecting them toward a white supremacist future."

The most recent comprehensive study of Confederate statues and monuments across the country was published by the Southern Poverty Law Center last year. A look at this chart shows huge spikes in construction twice during the 20th century: in the early 1900s, and then again in the 1950s and 60s. Both were times of extreme civil rights tension.

In the early 1900s, states were enacting Jim Crow laws to disenfranchise black Americans. In the middle part of the century, the civil rights movement pushed back against that segregation.

James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, says that the increase in statues and monuments was clearly meant to send a message.

"These statues were meant to create legitimate garb for white supremacy," Grossman said. "Why would you put a statue of Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson in 1948 in Baltimore?""