September 9, 2021

A 12-ton statue of Robert E Lee was taken down Wednesday and cut into pieces in Richmond, VA.
Been there since 1890. We’ve done this enough times to know there are people across the country who are very upset about it’s removal.

“Stop trying to erase our history!” They say.

You’ve heard all the cliche arguments, I know.

Why did the statue need to come down?

1) This is the United States. We honor folks who fought FOR our country. Robert E Lee was a traitor who fought against our country. We shouldn’t have an 18-foot statue honoring Lee for the same reason we don’t have an 18-foot statue honoring Benedict Arnold.

2) Yes, the monument is racist. That’s not my opinion, it is a statement of fact.

How do we know it’s racist?

Is it that Robert E Lee was a slave owner? No.
Is it that Lee fought to preserve slavery? No.
Is it all of the racist statements he spoke and wrote? No.

All true and all great guesses, but no.

The statue went up in 1890. Who put the statue up?
Come on, you know the answer, don’t play coy.

Richmond VA currently has a population that is 50.6% black.

I’ll give you a hint: The black people didn’t put it up. They were left out of these kinds of decisions at the time.
Could you imagine, all these black people getting together to honor their hero Robert E Lee?

Alright we narrowed our choices to Fredrick Douglas and Robert E Lee. Sure, Douglas was a great man, born a slave who fought for the freedom and education of black people. -But General Lee literally fought for us! Fought to keep us as property, sure. But he did it FOR us. That wonderful white man was willing to kill his own countrymen, because he believed we black people could not make it on our own. Now that’s a hero. I’m just going to say it, General Lee deserves it. Sorry Douglas, you’re cool and all, but we needed this Robert E Lee statue up like yesterday.

Wtf.

Does that even sound right to you? No, of course not.
So no. No, it wasn’t the black people.

Richmond VA, currently 40.8% white.
Who put the statue up? Come on, just shout it out if you know the answer…

The white people! That is correct. White people were in charge, white people had the money, white people donated the land, and white people put it up.
You may say sure, the optics look bad, but YDSS, how do we KNOW it is racist?

Why did they put it up?
Well let’s think about this…
The white people got together, started spitballing ideas about how to make the city a little “nicer”.
Guys, 25 years ago our country was nearly destroyed by a civil war. What can we do with this space that will bring our community together? One of them says, you know what ALL of us would enjoy? A giant statue of Robert E Lee. We’ll put him on a horse, on a pedestal. Inside, we’ll put a time capsule and fill it with all our best Confederate souvenirs. We got the money, we got the land, let’s just freakin’ do it. It’s going to be awesome.

The room erupted in applause and cheering. Yea, who doesn’t appreciate a hero like Robert E Lee? Our black friends are going to love it! They are going to be SO surprised when they see this thing go up! 🙂
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FFS, it’s racist because in a predominantly black city, a bunch of racist ass white people put up a monument of their racist hero who fought a war against our country to preserve the enslavement of the very same black people living in that city when the monument went up.

It’s not “woke”, -whatever the hell that means, it’s common sense.

These people didn’t put up Confederate monuments out of their love of history. They longed to return to the time when they could own people, wanted to glorify the traitors who fought for it, all while sending a message to the 50% black population: You may be legally free, but we have the power, we are in charge, and we still fucking own you.

That’s it. That’s Confederate monuments 101.
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Richmond Virginia, 50% black, 40% white. This is what I say-
If the majority black population does not think a giant statue honoring a traitor who fought to keep them as slaves accurately reflects them in 2021, it is their right to remove the statue… why should folks outside Richmond be upset they are taking it down?
It’s their city, not yours. They can decide for themselves who deserves a monument in THEIR city.
And as to the question, why now? After all these years, why is there suddenly a problem with our racist traitor statue?
The answer is:
Black folks weren’t consulted when the statue went up in 1890. It was always a problem. It just took over 130 years before they finally had someone in office willing to remove it for them.
And now it is gone.
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