Taking the concept of false equivalence to its illogical conclusion, some morons have started a petition to remove the African-American Monument from the South Carolina statehouse grounds, because it’s offensive to white people. As Great Statesman Lindsey Graham observed, the African-American history memorial was built as a face-saving part of the 2000 compromise to move the Confederate flag from the statehouse dome, so now that the flag has been removed from the Confederate war memorial, some butthurt Lost Causers say it’s obviously time to get rid of the other part of that deal. Since there was nothing hateful about the flag, says the petition’s author, Keith Harmon, it’s only fair to remove the African-American history monument, too.
Today on “GREAT MOMENTS IN FALSE EQUIVALENCE,” we discuss how a monument to the suffering and enslavement of African-Americans is EXACTLY like a flag which represents racism and slavery. How are they could not be the same, you ask? Fair is fair, right?? Well, the African-American Monument was erected to honor those who were owned and exploited by White people because they were unfortunate enough to have been born with black skin. The Star and Bars, along with other iterations of the Confederate flag, represent an attempt by southern states to secede. The Confederacy was a political system in which slavery, racism, and brutality directed at other human beings on the basis of their skin color was legal. Those who claim otherwise are either A) lying, or B) don’t know their history. All one need do is read South Carolina’s articles of confederation to understand that slavery was absolutely the primary reason for secession.
Those who claim that flying the Stars and Bars isn’t about racism or slavery are guilty of epic self-delusion. Anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty recognizes and understands the Stars and Bars is all about about racism, slavery, and hatred. To claim otherwise simply flies in the face of logic and historical truth. It’s about “heritage” only if you’re celebrating oppression, inhumanity, and hate.
Those circulating an online petition claiming that “fair is fair” seem not to understand the concept of false equivalence:
It has been stated that the battle flag must be removed due to it being offensive to the African American community, and invoking upon that community reminders of the dark history of slavery. To the same point, the African American Monument depicts slave ships, mistreatment and words such as “segregation” and “Jim Crow”. This being the case, it is undeniable that this monument can and does serve to invoke in the white community feelings of shame, humiliation and offense, serving as a constant reminder of the dark history of slavery.
Were Whites brutalized and enslaved because of the color of their skin? Were they legally defined as 3/5 of a person. Were they defined by law as property? Were they forbidden from getting an education? No? Then here’s your invitation to STFU. You flag is not the moral equivalent of the African-American Monument, regardless of any ridiculously self-serving argument you may cobble together out of ignorance and arrogance.
Honestly, the White community should feel shame for what their forebears did, in the same way Germans should forever remember the horrific genocide committed in their name during WWII. The African-American Monument commemorates a period in American history that should always be taught as a period of collective national shame. White Americans enslaved human beings solely on the basis of the color of their skin. African-Americans wer exploited for their labor and treated as less than human (3/5, actually) and of value only for their productive capacity.
The petition has nearly 40,000 electronic signatures, which proves that there are plenty of idiots online. We honestly hope the South Carolina Legislature will hold hearings on this, so that white people can offer testimony about how all through the 1950s and ’60s, their families were terrified by black lynch mobs carrying replicas of slave ships and burning chains on their lawns.
Then maybe we can get to that petition demanding that a Nazi history museum be built on the national mall in Washington DC, right across from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, because everyone deserves equal time.
No, one of these things is most definitely NOT like the other. One is a reminder of suffering and enslavement, the other commemorates hatred, slavery, and racism. That anyone could even presume to think them equivalent only speaks to a willful ignorance of history that fairly defies rational understanding. Flying a flag that represents an insult to an entire minority class is not a right, nor is it a symbol of one’s heritage…unless that heritage is hatred, racism, and slavery. Most good and decent people wouldn’t dream of flying a Nazi flag because of what it stands for. Flying the Stars and Bars is really no different…yet millions of White Americans demand that “right” be recognized and honored because it represents their heritage. Why not at least have the honesty to admit your racism and hatred of African-Americans?
It’s taken 150 years, but we’re finally getting it right. Sadly, there will always be those who cling to the symbols of a romanticized, historically inaccurate past because they believe them to represent things they really don’t and can’t.
The African-American Monument should remain in place, and I suspect it will. No matter how much White folks cling to the Stars and Bars, there can be no credible claim for equating a monument representing suffering and enslavement with a flag symbolic of racism, hatred, and slavery. 40,000 people just don’t get it- either because they’re too stupid or because they just don’t care. I’m not certain which could be held to be more abhorrent.
There’s no right to ignorance, racism, and hatred…not that this will stop Whites from claiming reverse discrimination, of course; but claiming something doesn’t mean you actually have a right to it.
