MESSAGE
TO TRUMP
SUPPORTERS
Leela Miller
A message to Trump supporters from someone who actually teaches
AP US History:
“If you are confused as to why so many Americans are defending the
confederate flag, monuments, and statues right now, I put together
a quick Q&A, with questions from a hypothetical person with
misconceptions and answers from my perspective as an AP U.S. History
Teacher:
Q: What did the Confederacy stand for?
A: Rather than interpreting, let's go directly to the words of the
Confederacy's Vice President, Alexander Stephens. In his "Cornerstone
Speech" on March 21, 1861, he stated "The Constitution... rested upon
the equality of races. This was an error.Our new government is founded
upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone
rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man;
that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal
condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the
world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."
Q: But people keep saying heritage, not hate! They think the purpose of
the flags and monuments is to honor confederate soldiers, right?
A: The vast majority of confederate flags flying over government buildings
in the south were first put up in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement.
So for the first hundred years after the Civil War ended, while relatives of
those who fought in it were still alive, the confederate flag wasn't much of
a symbol at all. But when Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis were marching
on Washington to get the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965)
passed, leaders in the south felt compelled to fly confederate flags and put
up monuments to honor people who had no living family members and had fought
in a war that ended a century ago. Their purpose in doing this was to exhibit
their displeasure with black people fighting for basic human rights that were
guaranteed to them in the 14th and 15th Amendments but being withheld by racist
policies and practices.
Q: But if we take down confederate statues and monuments, how will we teach about
and remember the past?
A: Monuments and statues pose little educational relevance, whereas museums, the
rightful place for Confederate paraphernalia, can provide more educational
opportunities for citizens to learn about our country's history. The Civil War is
important to learn about, and will always loom large in the social studies
curriculum. Removing monuments from public places and putting them in museums also
allows us to avoid celebrating and honoring people who believed that tens of
millions of black Americans should be legal property.
Q: But what if the Confederate flag symbol means something different to me?
A: Individuals aren't able to change the meaning of symbols that have been defined
by history. When I hang a Bucs flag outside my house, to me, the Bucs might represent
the best team in the NFL, but to the outside world, they represent an awful NFL team,
since they haven't won a playoff game in 18 years. I can't change that meaning for
everyone who drives by my house because it has been established for the whole world
to see. If a Confederate flag stands for generic rebellion or southern pride to you,
your personal interpretation forfeits any meaning once you display it publicly, as its
meaning takes on the meaning it earned when a failed regime killed hundreds of thousands
of Americans in an attempt to destroy America and keep black people enslaved forever.
Q: But my uncle posted a meme that said the Civil War/Confederacy was about state's rights
and not slavery?
A: "A state's right to what?" - John Green
Q: Everyone is offended about everything these days. Should we take everything down that
offends anyone?
A: The Confederacy literally existed to go against the Constitution, the Declaration of
Independence, and the idea that black people are human beings that deserve to live freely.
If that doesn't upset or offend you, you are un-American.
Q: Taking these down goes against the First Amendment and freedom of speech, right?
A: No. Anyone can do whatever they want on their private property, on their social media,
etc. Taking these down in public, or having private corporations like NASCAR ban them on
their properties, has literally nothing to do with the Bill of Rights.
Q: How can people claim to be patriotic while supporting a flag that stood for a group of
insurgent failures who tried to permanently destroy America and killed 300,000 Americans
in the process?
A: No clue.
Q: So if I made a confederate flag my profile picture, or put a confederate bumper sticker
on my car, what am I declaring to my friends, family, and the world?
A: That you support the Confederacy. To recap, the Confederacy stands for: slavery, white
supremacy, treason, failure, and a desire to permanently destroy Selective history as it
supports white supremacy.
It’s no accident that:
You learned about Helen Keller instead of W.E.B, DuBois
You learned about the Watts and L.A. Riots, but not Tulsa or Wilmington.
You learned that George Washington’s dentures were made from wood, rather
than the teeth from slaves.
You learned about black ghettos, but not about Black Wall Street.
You learned about the New Deal, but not “redlining.”
You learned about Tommie Smith’s fist in the air at the 1968 Olympics, but
not that he was sent home the next day and stripped of his medals.
You learned about “black crime,” but white criminals were never lumped together
and discussed in terms of their race.
You learned about “states rights” as the cause of the Civil War, but not that
slavery was mentioned 80 times in the articles of secession.
Privilege is having history rewritten so that you don’t have to acknowledge
uncomfortable facts.
Racism is perpetuated by people who refuse to learn or acknowledge this reality.
You have a choice.”
Leela Miller
https://www.facebook.com/leela.miller.54
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400
YEARS OF
INEQUALITY
http://www.400yearsofinequality.org/
Celebrating
African American
Culture & History
Black History Month
http://guides.hmcpl.org/c.php?g=790427&p=5657381
Racial Equity
Resource Guide
http://www.racialequityresourceguide.org/organizations/organizations/sectionFilter/Racial%20Healing
Understanding
Prejudice
https://secure.understandingprejudice.org/
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Equal Justice
Initiative
https://eji.org/
The Collective
Black People Movement
(CBPM)
http://cbpm.org/index.html
TRIP DOWN
MEMORY LANE
https://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/
A Gathering
of Readers
https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~gathread/index.html
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Malawi
Project
http://www.malawiproject.org/
Afro Kids
http://www.afrokids.com/
THE FREEMAN
INSTITUTE
http://www.freemaninstitute.com/
Africa
Resource
http://www.africaresource.com/
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Real History
World Wide
http://www.realhistoryww.com/
Quatr.us
http://quatr.us/
African-American
Resources
http://www.ushistory.org/more/african-american.htm
African American
Studies Library
Research Guide
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~savega/aframer.htm
African Music
Encyclopedia
http://africanmusic.org/
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AFROPEDEA
http://www.afropedia.org
World Afropedia
http://worldafropedia.com/afropedia/Main_Page
African
Indigenous Science
and Knowledge Systems
http://www.africahistory.net/
Natives Wiki
http://tribalspedia.wikia.com/wiki/Natives_Wiki
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Islamic Wiki
http://islam.wikia.com/
Sexism
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/
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