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160 years ago, the slave-owning states of the South started a Civil War, rather than agree to end slavery.
Many have carried on that war since.
They said "The South Shall Rise Again" while they flew Confederate flags.
They stood against racial justice through American history.
Many have carried on that war since.
They said "The South Shall Rise Again" while they flew Confederate flags.
They stood against racial justice through American history.
They lynched Black voters and politicians during Reconstruction.
They instituted Jim Crow to restrict the franchise.
They brutalized Civil Rights protesters.
They stacked the Supreme Court with sympathizers who would overturn key aspects of the Voting Rights Act.
They instituted Jim Crow to restrict the franchise.
They brutalized Civil Rights protesters.
They stacked the Supreme Court with sympathizers who would overturn key aspects of the Voting Rights Act.
Now, with Trump's defeat, with their Senate majority lost just yesterday in runoff elections in Georgia, many of these descendants of defectors, still flying the flag of traitors, have once again turned against their nation, and stormed the Capitol building with guns.
Ask yourself this:
What happened when Black Lives Matter protesters marched in the streets?
What happened when water protectors objected to a pipeline and stood firm in protest?
And what is happening now as treasonous cowards fire guns within the halls of that Capitol?
What happened when Black Lives Matter protesters marched in the streets?
What happened when water protectors objected to a pipeline and stood firm in protest?
And what is happening now as treasonous cowards fire guns within the halls of that Capitol?
This is the double standard of white supremacy.
When white people violently turn against democracy, they are "protesters".
When Black and Indigenous people protest brutality and violence against our communities, we are treated like enemies of the state.
When white people violently turn against democracy, they are "protesters".
When Black and Indigenous people protest brutality and violence against our communities, we are treated like enemies of the state.
Make no mistake, these are not protesters. They are traitors, carrying out the legacy of their ancestors, willing to turn guns on their fellow countrymen rather than accede to any political reality which might force them to treat equally those of us whom they see as subhuman.
The legacy of the Confederacy and the promise of America cannot co-exist. Much as Germany reckoned with its past with strong bans against the regalia and symbology of Nazi Germany, so must we relegate the shameful history of the Confederacy to museums of shame.
People need to point at wax figures of Confederate soldiers and say "how could they not know they were in the wrong?"
People need to be ashamed of their Confederate-sympathizing uncle.
People need to read history books and think "that could never happen here/now."
People need to be ashamed of their Confederate-sympathizing uncle.
People need to read history books and think "that could never happen here/now."
As long as the Confederacy lives on in the imagination of its resentful inheritors, our nation will always be one crisis away from white supremacist violence.
Because right now, we are watching an attempted coup - an attempted revival of the Civil War - in our Capitol right now.
Because right now, we are watching an attempted coup - an attempted revival of the Civil War - in our Capitol right now.
