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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: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 22 2017, @06:09PM
Mod down if you'd like, but the contradictory elements are obvious for anyone to see. I have met quite a few closet bigots, most of the time their negative tendencies are left overs from their upbringing. It takes generations for such institutionalized hatred to wash out, and hopefully we're seeing one of the last major revivals right now. Seriously, comments like TMBs are along the lines of the guys screaming "I'm not racist" while they protest right along KKK members. Perhaps they are not racists, but their close friendships with full blown nazis puts them smack in the middle of the dark gray area. This isn't complicated, unless you have some massive paradoxes stored in your brain, then the obvious truth becomes so much harder to perceive.
In this instance, there is obviously validity to the idea that the Civil War was about more than slavery, but using those less relevant facts to pretend that confederate statues not about slavery and racism is dumb. Stupid. Moronic. Retarded. Crazy. Willfully ignorant. Brainwashed. Apologist bullshit.