Honestly, I think I can see both sides. I guess it just depends on which way you look at it.
To many southerners, the civil war wasn't about slavery. They see it as independence from the government up north, much like the revolutionary war was about independence from Britain. As someone else here said, many of the confederate soldiers did not themselves own slaves and there were even blacks who fought. Slavery was not the reason these people fought. If there is a southerner telling me that this is how he feels about it, I can't be like "Nope, no you don't. You just want to defend slavery." (Unless you are a supremacist, in which case you've already made it quite clear how you feel about non whites. But for the average decent person who is a southerner, if they tell me their view of the confederate army has nothing to do with slavery or racism, I can't tell them they are wrong.)
With that being said, I also see why/how a a black person or anyone else who sees the civil war as being all about slavery would be offended and would want those statues down for that reason. Because to them, the confederate soldiers do represent slavery and racism, since that is one of the differences between the north and south at the time. And those statues feel, to them, like a stand against their human dignity. That makes sense as well.
I think it is important to understand where each person is coming from before we mass label everyone in the former group racist and everyone in the latter group snow flakes.
To many southerners, the civil war wasn't about slavery. They see it as independence from the government up north, much like the revolutionary war was about independence from Britain. As someone else here said, many of the confederate soldiers did not themselves own slaves and there were even blacks who fought. Slavery was not the reason these people fought. If there is a southerner telling me that this is how he feels about it, I can't be like "Nope, no you don't. You just want to defend slavery." (Unless you are a supremacist, in which case you've already made it quite clear how you feel about non whites. But for the average decent person who is a southerner, if they tell me their view of the confederate army has nothing to do with slavery or racism, I can't tell them they are wrong.)
With that being said, I also see why/how a a black person or anyone else who sees the civil war as being all about slavery would be offended and would want those statues down for that reason. Because to them, the confederate soldiers do represent slavery and racism, since that is one of the differences between the north and south at the time. And those statues feel, to them, like a stand against their human dignity. That makes sense as well.
I think it is important to understand where each person is coming from before we mass label everyone in the former group racist and everyone in the latter group snow flakes.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
-walsh
