PlastIconoclastic

Where do you think a fair line can be drawn between remembrance and hero worship of men who fought their own countrymen? What do the statues look like that are not being protested?

It seems from other replies you have made that if the statues were of men of moderate politics like Gen. Longstreet then they would be easier for to justify as a remembrance that fits within our struggle for a more perfect union and less within a narrative of separatist beliefs in a state being created that did not acknowledge African Americans as people. I also think docents at monuments and centralizing them is a great idea, but what if the docents are from a mindset that “the wrong people won” the civil war and it is used as a cinder of hope for a belief system that rationalizes genocidal civil war. What if we create a white nationalist Mecca? (Reposted from a reply to the main level as a comment)

Where do appeals to “heritage” fall into this debate? Can we defend indefensible memorials of the past such as the confederate flag and statues motivated by racism by the arguments that refer to fathers and grandfathers feeling connected to these physical objects despite not believing in their original meaning? i.e.: Can we accept that the meaning of symbols can change?

It seems from other replies you have made that if the statues were of men of moderate politics like Gen. Longstreet then they would be easier for to justify as a remembrance that fits within our struggle for a more perfect union and less within a narrative of separatist beliefs in a state being created that did not acknowledge African Americans as people. I also think docents at monuments and centralizing them is a great idea, but what if the docents are from a mindset that “the wrong people won” the civil war and it is used as a cinder of hope for a belief system that rationalizes genocidal civil war. What if we creat a white nationalist Mecca?