Face the facts, racism and bigotry is part of human history, whether we like it or not!
Many great leaders in government were racists, bigots, and should be denounced for that part of their historical record!
But to say that Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, and innumerable others who have been important figures in American history should, therefore, be wiped out of history–have all statues removed, all monuments destroyed, all buildings renamed, all streets and schools no longer reflect their historical significance, much of it good,— is CRAZY and distorting history!
We can condemn the fact that many Presidents were slave owners; that Lincoln had a mixed record on racial matters; that Confederate leaders were out to defend slavery; that many 20th century Presidents had a prejudice toward various religious, racial and ethnic groups in American society; and recognize there is much to do to overcome racism and bigotry.
But all of the people mentioned are an important part of history in ways and on issues other than negative ones! They had positive contributions that affected the long run of history!
So should the effect of Woodrow Wilson on Princeton University be wiped out; and should the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials and Washington Monument; and should Stone Mountain in Georgia and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota; and endless other monuments and sites named after imperfect people— be destroyed because some people are affronted about our past?
The answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT, and instead use the truth of the past as a teaching moment, and strive to make America a better place now and in the future!
All this craziness is the sole creation of the left in the media, politics and academia especially. The kids and young adults who call for all this banning (reminds me of the book burners) of speech, monuments, films etc, don’t know any better. They start off by demanding a “safe space” in college and now they want all of America to be a “safe space”. It is what they have learned. It is what they were taught. They are taking what they learned in our current culture and taking it to its logical consequences. In the end, these people are victims of the brainwashing they suffered in the hands of the cultural left. They just don’t know any better. The left with all their arrogance created this Frankenstein. And now they are being eaten by the monster they created.
My friends and I here are young adults (we’re in our 20’s and 30’s), whom you try to paint as “not knowing any better”. We are respectful of history.
Pragmatic: I specifically wrote “The kids and young adults who call for all this banning” If you are not calling for all this banning, then I am clearly not referring to you or your friends.
I second that Pragmatic! Kids and young adults are not doing any “banning” and nobody on the left is “brainwashing” them.
You mean there is no banning in some Ivy League Universities and some college campuses? Where on earth are you living?
We’re liberals in a conservative town in the deep South. Our view is pretty much the same as the Professor’s post. We feel that political correctness has a place to a certain extent. We as a society need to be conscious and sensitive to the feelings of others, but perhaps it should not extend quite so far into the past.
In addition to it being a small, conservative town, it’s also heavily populated by retirees. At the small handful of colleges that are nearby the town, nobody’s banning anything.
I second what Southern Liberal said. It’s not happening at every college.
Young people that we know in our community feel the same as Former Republican mentioned.