“When I look at Robert E Lee, the comparisons to him and George Washington are immense,” he said, noting Washington also owned slaves.
Not the same.
“I wonder when George Washington’s name and things like that will then have to come off of things.”
One helped found this country. Another fought this country.
“But to be taught that everyone who fought for the Confederacy, or did this, or did that, is a racist slave holder, that’s all or nothing, and that really isn’t doing history justice,” he added.
We really need to teach better in history class. THAT is where we need to stop removing things, not statues and dedications to traitors of the country. He doesn’t understand WHY the Confederacy started the war, does he? Maybe he should dive into the declarations from the various states on why they seceded. It’s plainly mentioned in almost all of them.
Forcing them to argue that washington had slaves is a step in the right direction. It is a crack in their jingoistic myth of the founding fathers. Theyre being forced to learn a bit of history thats been intentionally hidden. Next question; If most the founding fathers owned slaves, whats that mean? Whats that say about america? So slavery was an institution and treated as the norm?
And then you find out that not only was Saint George a slaver, but he did things like having teeth yanked out of his slaves’ mouths to construct false teeth for his own.
Next question; If most the founding fathers owned slaves, whats that mean? Whats that say about america? So slavery was an institution and treated as the norm?
It also means we can, as a country, chose to be better. These asshats are not choosing to be better. There is a moral and ethical onus to improve ourselves as a nation and as individuals. They’re failing that.
And Canada still continues that tradition today, don’t worry. Y’all might acknowledge your First Nations people better, but that doesn’t mean Canadian police and the RCMP especially hesitate when they see a chance to shoot some indigenous people.
No doubt. Our police aren’t quite as gun happy as the US cops, but they still find their own ways to murder people they consider to be lesser than them if a gun might be too egregious for a given situation.
I mean sometimes they would just arrest a native American on a freezing cold night, drive them miles out into the middle of nowhere and then kick them out.
They gave it a beautiful name. They called it a “starlight tour”. And we have no official records of how many native Americans were murdered by Canadian police officers using this process.
This is one of the first things that comes to my mind, as a native american, every time somebody mentions that Canada is so great and wonderful and how much they wish we could move there.
That’s interesting. I don’t think I have ever seen someone refer to an Aboriginal Canadian as a Native American. Native Canadian yes, but native Americans were always south of the border in my mind.
I understand the concept, but I have never heard the term Native American used for anyone except the indigenous people within the United States of america.
We really need to teach better in history class. THAT is where we need to stop removing things, not statues and dedications to traitors of the country
Did you miss the insane freakouts by conservatives related to critical race theory?? They refuse to allow history to be taught, it’s not that we need to “do better” like we’ve made some mistakes, these are malicious purposeful actions.
They prefer to teach this kind of history:
The Florida Board of Education approved new social studies standards July 19 following a law passed by the legislature in 2022, known as “Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act” or the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act.”
The law bans workplaces and schools from teaching that anyone must feel guilt based on their race as a result of actions by others in the past. Earlier this year, Florida rejected a new high school Advanced Placement course on Black studies.
The 216-page standards document covers a broad sweep of Black history, along with topics such as the Holocaust, world history and geography. It includes different standards for elementary, middle and high school students.
The part of Florida’s new standards that Harris was citing is for grades six through eight. It says:
“Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).”
The controversial part is in this “benchmark clarification” about slave labor: “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
THAT is where we need to stop removing things, not statues and dedications to traitors of the country
I wholeheartedly DISAGREE. We do NOT NEED monuments to literal fucking traitors. Should we put up a goddamn statue of Benedict Arnold too?? Jesus Christ. Do black people really need to see the face of the oppressors of their ancestors every day?
My statement agreed with you, saying we should stop removing (or start including) uncomfortable lessons of history in schools, and remove the objects that as you say were put there long after the war not as a memorial but as a reminder (and a promise to go back if they can) of the oppression. I’m not sure how you read it as the opposite, I called them traitors.
I remember spending almost an hour reading some of the declarations of the states, and I remember Texas writing that they were given the right to own slaves by God, and that they will fight to defend that that right against anything 🙄. They couldn’t have been more clear.
More so than we like to admit. Washington was a loyalist until the Dunmore Proclamation threatened his human chattel.
Lee broke for the Confederacy with the election of Lincoln.
Both these men were fundamentally driven by their economic conditions. The difference between Washington and Lee is that Washington won.
He doesn’t understand WHY the Confederacy started the war, does he?
The regional industrial power threatened the South’s economic position as a confederacy of slave holders. That’s what got Washington, Jefferson, and a host of other Southern planters on board, too.
Not the same.
One helped found this country. Another fought this country.
We really need to teach better in history class. THAT is where we need to stop removing things, not statues and dedications to traitors of the country. He doesn’t understand WHY the Confederacy started the war, does he? Maybe he should dive into the declarations from the various states on why they seceded. It’s plainly mentioned in almost all of them.
Forcing them to argue that washington had slaves is a step in the right direction. It is a crack in their jingoistic myth of the founding fathers. Theyre being forced to learn a bit of history thats been intentionally hidden. Next question; If most the founding fathers owned slaves, whats that mean? Whats that say about america? So slavery was an institution and treated as the norm?
Its messy but this is progress
And then you find out that not only was Saint George a slaver, but he did things like having teeth yanked out of his slaves’ mouths to construct false teeth for his own.
He was genuinely not a good dude.
Hmm, it sounds like he actually bought them.
This somehow makes it weirder.
Washington was the wealthiest man in the colonies by 1776. Sort of the Jeff Bezos of tobacco.
Would you let Jeff Bezos pull out nine of your teeth if he offered to paid you $1200?
It also means we can, as a country, chose to be better. These asshats are not choosing to be better. There is a moral and ethical onus to improve ourselves as a nation and as individuals. They’re failing that.
Canadians don’t have a cult of personality around our first Prime Minister the way Americans do around George Washington.
Canada was apparently founded on uniting white Europeans to eradicate the “savage” indigenous populations here.
So… founding the country can be overlooked to an extent if the person was otherwise an asshole.
There’s a difference between founding a country by winning a war against a monarchy and founding a country when a CEO sucks a monarch off.
And Canada still continues that tradition today, don’t worry. Y’all might acknowledge your First Nations people better, but that doesn’t mean Canadian police and the RCMP especially hesitate when they see a chance to shoot some indigenous people.
No doubt. Our police aren’t quite as gun happy as the US cops, but they still find their own ways to murder people they consider to be lesser than them if a gun might be too egregious for a given situation.
I mean sometimes they would just arrest a native American on a freezing cold night, drive them miles out into the middle of nowhere and then kick them out.
They gave it a beautiful name. They called it a “starlight tour”. And we have no official records of how many native Americans were murdered by Canadian police officers using this process.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/starlight-tours
This is one of the first things that comes to my mind, as a native american, every time somebody mentions that Canada is so great and wonderful and how much they wish we could move there.
That’s interesting. I don’t think I have ever seen someone refer to an Aboriginal Canadian as a Native American. Native Canadian yes, but native Americans were always south of the border in my mind.
A native American in the general is somebody that’s native to the Americas.
There are native Americans in Mexico and in all South American countries as well.
I understand the concept, but I have never heard the term Native American used for anyone except the indigenous people within the United States of america.
Did you miss the insane freakouts by conservatives related to critical race theory?? They refuse to allow history to be taught, it’s not that we need to “do better” like we’ve made some mistakes, these are malicious purposeful actions.
They prefer to teach this kind of history:
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jul/24/kamala-harris/do-Florida-school-standards-say-enslaved-people/
I wholeheartedly DISAGREE. We do NOT NEED monuments to literal fucking traitors. Should we put up a goddamn statue of Benedict Arnold too?? Jesus Christ. Do black people really need to see the face of the oppressors of their ancestors every day?
My statement agreed with you, saying we should stop removing (or start including) uncomfortable lessons of history in schools, and remove the objects that as you say were put there long after the war not as a memorial but as a reminder (and a promise to go back if they can) of the oppression. I’m not sure how you read it as the opposite, I called them traitors.
I remember spending almost an hour reading some of the declarations of the states, and I remember Texas writing that they were given the right to own slaves by God, and that they will fight to defend that that right against anything 🙄. They couldn’t have been more clear.
More so than we like to admit. Washington was a loyalist until the Dunmore Proclamation threatened his human chattel.
Lee broke for the Confederacy with the election of Lincoln.
Both these men were fundamentally driven by their economic conditions. The difference between Washington and Lee is that Washington won.
The regional industrial power threatened the South’s economic position as a confederacy of slave holders. That’s what got Washington, Jefferson, and a host of other Southern planters on board, too.