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The President of the University of Texas at Austin released a letter regarding the removal of statues on the campus.
[...] The University of Texas at Austin is a public educational and research institution, first and foremost. The historical and cultural significance of the Confederate statues on our campus — and the connections that individuals have with them — are severely compromised by what they symbolize. Erected during the period of Jim Crow laws and segregation, the statues represent the subjugation of African Americans. That remains true today for white supremacists who use them to symbolize hatred and bigotry.
The University of Texas at Austin has a duty to preserve and study history. But our duty also compels us to acknowledge that those parts of our history that run counter to the university's core values, the values of our state and the enduring values of our nation do not belong on pedestals in the heart of the Forty Acres.
The issue isn't a new one, they first looked into the issue in 2015, and had a wide range of options including effectively turning the mall into an open air museum, which they eventually decided against. Should the statues be relocated from their historical context just because of the attitudes and behaviour of noisy minorities? (Your humble editor cannot forget the local riots when a historical but hostile-themed statue was relocated.)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Tuesday August 22 2017, @05:33PM (4 children)
I'm of multiple minds about this. In no particular order:
- Culture has changed, and continues to change. Maybe there are chapters in history we no longer want on public display, fair enough.
- There are different subcultures. The statues represent different things to different people. Some surveys have shown that a minority of poeple (even a minority of black people) think of the statues as "white supremacist". Why let a few extremists (on either side) drive the perceptions of a whole country?
- History happened. More: someone, sometime, thought it worth erecting these statues, and that is also part of history. It behooves us to understand history, but that isn't happening here (see next point).
- People do not know their own history. Take Robert E. Lee as an example, since one of his statues was recently torn down. The Union offered him a position as a general, but his loyalties were with his state: Virginia. Virginia did not secede with the South. Virginia seceded later, when the North attacked the South, because Virginia believed that secession was an inherent right, and disagreed with the North playing tyrant. Lee went with his State. So the picture of him fighting for slavery is flawed, at best - it would be better to say that he (and Virginia) fought for a particular interpretation of the Constitution.
But complex stories don't fit in headlines. Certain groups are driving this story, and keeping it focused on race, just as they have done with previous issues. When the statues are gone, the organizations behind this (SPLC, BLM, etc.) will find the next issue, and the next. It's not about statues, or names of sports teams, or justice, or equality, or any of that. These organizations have long succumbed to Pournelle's Iron Law, and this is all about money and political power.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 22 2017, @05:52PM (3 children)
"- Culture has changed, and continues to change. Maybe there are chapters in history we no longer want on public display, fair enough."
BULLSHIT. Even if culture has changed, it has not changed to what is being portrayed in the media and social media by hysterical, whinney, entitled, brats. Yelling loudest doesn't make you the majority, it just makes you an asshole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 22 2017, @06:25PM
Your insults clearly indicate the amount of kool-aid you've been drinking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 22 2017, @10:28PM
You'll be glad to know that the white supremacist rally in Boston was a fizzle.
The ratio of Civil Libertarians to bigots was 40,000:50. [google.com]
The cops feared for the safety of the Alt-Reich and put them in vans to get them out of the area.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 23 2017, @07:31AM
Another event, this time in Laguna Beach, CA.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]