Poor little Dinesh.

Just as wrong & confused as ever. Activists HAVE been targeting the slaveholding legacy of Douglas for years at the University of Chicago (a place he founded in 1856). Two monuments to him there just came down.

A @KevinMKruse style dunk on Douglas/Dinesh https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/status/1281070263485050880
For me it all started here with @TheRAUC's piece on @BlkPerspectives detailing the University of Chicago's ties to slavery via Stephen A. Douglas's 3000 acre cotton plantation in Lawrence County, Mississippi. https://www.aaihs.org/a-case-for-reparations-at-the-university-of-chicago/ #Twitterstorians #BlkTwitterstorians
A Case for Reparations at the University of Chicago

Julia Leakes yearned to be reunited with her family.  In 1853, her two sisters showed up for sale along with her thirteen nieces and nephews in Lawrence County, Mississippi. Julia used all the...

https://www.aaihs.org/a-case-for-reparations-at-the-university-of-chicago/
That work was then peer-reviewed multiple times (both formally and informally) and was then published at the @JAAHistory which is the oldest and most storied academic journal for African American history in the world. Here is the full piece:
But...

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/696362?mobileUi=0& @ASALH
We then found out that, (surprise, surprise), Black Chicago was already on the case. @Bronzeville4all had already been memorializing the names of the peoples that Douglas enslaved every year on his birthday at his graveside. …https://bronzevillehistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/2017/05/23/stephen-a-douglas-slaves-a-case-for-reparations/
What followed were 3 years of marches https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2017/10/3/student-activists-speak-racial-justice-rally/
Teach-Ins https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2018/2/8/reparations-cba-organizers-hold-teach/
Community Forums with @uchicagogsu @ocartman1 @KofiAdemola and others https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2018/2/27/groups-advocate-reparations-community-benefits-uni/
Groups Advocate Reparations and University History at Teach-In

Audience discussion became heated over different interpretations of the University's history.

https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2018/2/27/groups-advocate-reparations-community-benefits-uni/
Petitions to City Council with @NCOBRA40 and @Kamm29207971 https://chicagocrusader.com/group-demands-reparations-from-university-of-chicago/
Campaigns by local 5th Graders @TheVLAcademy to change the name of Stephen Douglas Park to Frederick Douglass Park. https://www.gofundme.com/f/douglas-park-change-the-name-campaign?sharetype=teams&member=4948560&pc=fb_tco_campmgmtbnr_m&rcid=r01-159387010117-1112e9e022cf4481&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_lico%2Bbanner&fbclid=IwAR2M3IQ2qAqIjoAYXb_mfLA-sifHHrlDcetWankIEedJpOyzJSrOyj1qmQI
Douglas Park Change the Name Campaign organized by Dayo Ekundayo

For the last three consecutive years, the students of Village Leadership Academy … Dayo Ekundayo needs your support for Douglas Park Change the Name Campaign

https://www.gofundme.com/f/douglas-park-change-the-name-campaign?sharetype=teams&member=4948560&pc=fb_tco_campmgmtbnr_m&rcid=r01-159387010117-1112e9e022cf4481&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_lico%2Bbanner&fbclid=IwAR2M3IQ2qAqIjoAYXb_mfLA-sifHHrlDcetWankIEedJpOyzJSrOyj1qmQI
P.S. When the City wouldn't do it, someone came through and did it themselves

https://wbbm780.radio.com/articles/students-hold-teach-in-to-try-and-change-name-of-park
P.S. When the City wouldn't do it, someone came through and did it themselves https://wbbm780.radio.com/articles/students-hold-teach-in-to-try-and-change-name-of-park
P.S. When the City wouldn't do it, someone came through and did it themselves https://wbbm780.radio.com/articles/students-hold-teach-in-to-try-and-change-name-of-park
Oh and, of course, a massive rally at the Douglas Tomb itself at 35th and Cottage Grove in the wake of Charlottesville organized by @R3CoalitionChi and supported by @BLMChi @CAARPRNow @LetUsBreathe773 and many more https://resistreimaginerebuild.com/2017/08/23/365/ 
Followed a bit later by a #ReparationsSummit that included @GKMC18 @heyo__tayo @jbkm1973 @chitorture and many more. https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2019/4/30/rauc-hosts-reparations-summit-activists-academics/
RAUC Hosts Reparations Summit with Activists, Academics

“Some people are very skeptical about throwing money at the problem…people of color very much appreciate it when you throw money at the problem. Very few of us are offended by that," said Michael...

https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2019/4/30/rauc-hosts-reparations-summit-activists-academics/
All this pressure came to bear on the University of Chicago's recent acknowledgement of its historical ties to slavery and its removal of two monuments to Stephen A. Douglas on campus.

However...

there's a catch... https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-stephen-douglas-memorials-slavery-illinois-universities-20200708-qlvhrek3tjfdzpme7zpozl7oae-story.html
U. of C. removes tributes to late Illinois Sen. Stephen Douglas, a slavery defender: ‘Douglas does...

The University of Chicago announced Tuesday that it removed two displays honoring late Illinois Sen. Stephen Douglas, a staunch defender of slavery who argued the practice was a matter of states’...

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-stephen-douglas-memorials-slavery-illinois-universities-20200708-qlvhrek3tjfdzpme7zpozl7oae-story.html
As @TheRAUC detailed in their response, the removal of the monuments was NEVER part of the community's demands.Instead, community members were demanding #reparations from the University of Chicago in the form of police abolition, a @ObamaCBA, housing, etc. https://twitter.com/TheRAUC/status/1280888902702809088?s=20
In other words, while Douglas has long been a target of activists on the South Side of Chicago, it is his institutional legacy of gentrification, policing, and plunder through #UChicago that activists have been targeting, more so than the mere symbolic markers of that oppression.
So in the end, @DineshDSouza is just as bad at reading activism as he is a reading history.

Illiterate on two counts.

[I won't even bother with his stupid party realignment mischaracterization that @KevinMKruse and other #Twitterstorians mock him for almost daily]
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