In ALONG THOSE LINES, I quoted my old Folklore professor, Daniel Patterson: "History tells you what happened; folklore tells you how people FEEL about what happened." I believe his words also say something about monuments. 1/x

Not every historical event gets a monument, let alone a statue. Prince Jones, Jr., was shot six times in the back by a police officer in 2000; that happened. So far as I know, his only monument is in the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates. 2/x

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Jones

Another historical figure, Henry "Box" Brown, who had himself mailed to freedom in 1849, has a monument in the shape of a box, but no statue. Why not? Why do J.E.B. Stuart and Maggie Walker have statues in Richmond, but not RVA native Box Brown? 3/x

Obviously because human beings CHOOSE to make statues of some people and not others. Historical events don't just cause statues the way blizzards create icicles. People create statues in order to express their feelings about those events, typically long after them. 4/x

In short, the idea that removing a statue somehow erases history is nonsensical. All that's being removed is a physical symbol of someone's feelings about history. And since statues require time and expense, it's often a wealthy and influential person's feelings. 5/x

In other cases, money and power are pooled by a community in order to express a more widespread feeling about history. Sometimes it's a combination, and a community will accept donations from private sources. But it's never history; it's always folklore. 6/x

But folklore not only takes different forms, it changes. Folk tales that were once popular may fall out of favor; widely sung folk songs may stop being sung. When people stop feeling positive about something, they vote with their ears and their voices. 7/x

Often we may not know folklore has changed. For example: in my youth, the children's counting rhyme "Eeny Meeny Miny Moe" used "catch a tiger by his toe," which was apparently not the original language. But I learned this decades later. Is that erasing history? Of course not. 8/x

My larger point: the fact that some influential person or persons managed to get a statue erected is not an unalterable historical event. It's simply a sign that at some point the powers that be approved of their expression of feeling. 9/x

But when those powers cease to be, or when the feelings expressed are no longer shared by the people of the present day, people are no longer going to want to hear that song. The state can either stop singing it or watch as the people drown it out. 10/end