Name change suggested for Rutgers

[shu09]

That's all true, but you neglect to mention his third act, which was to renounce the KKK and his affiliation with it, in the strongest terms over the last twenty years of his life, loudly, publicly, and at every opportunity. His legacy - like some of the men commemorated by these statues and names - is complicated and nuanced, with a long record of effective accomplishments tainted by an equally long record of upholding white supremacy. But at least in the case of Byrd, he had a reckoning and the good taste to repudiate that life, and well before he was on his deathbed, too.

But according to cancel culture, you can't evolve, rethink or apologize for your actions. Once it's done, it's done. There is no going back, you are branded for life.

 

[Pirate64]

I feel for those remaining Holocaust survivors who have to live with numbers tatooed on their arms. Death camps of the Nazi era were kept in tact as a reminder of what evils can emerge among mankind. Perhaps taking down these statues has some redemption associated with it. But confronting the past is a powerful way to prevent the bondage of a race of people from ever occuring again. There can be a great learning experience from some of these historical figures too.

Excellent point. Sometimes these physical reminders make a deeper impression than words or pictures.
An aside, I was very young when I met a holocaust survivor. My father pointed to the tattoo on his forearm and explained it. I’ve never forgotten that.

 

[CL82]

I favor the name applied by Lou Holtz, who called them "Ruptures."

Lou Holtz is a funny guy. He was assistant at UConn. He has a great line that that when he was there the name of the town it was located in was "Store" because it was before they got a second one.

 

[SHUSource]

But according to cancel culture, you can't evolve, rethink or apologize for your actions. Once it's done, it's done. There is no going back, you are branded for life.

True, and that's the problem with it - it leaves no room for nuance. Still, I wouldn't say that all types of reconciliation are or should be weighted equally. I'm not letting Sen. Byrd off the hook, but but he wasn't "caught" being in the KKK; he lived that life openly and freely before realizing the evil ideology behind while he was still in a position to effect change. It was no deathbed conversion, is what I mean. And while it doesn't do anything to erase his past, it does alter his legacy to a degree, and that is a level of nuance that I think deserves consideration.

And I don't see that in any Confederate military leaders/legislators. Those people led an active army of treason (to say nothing of their unconscionable and unapologetic human rights violations) so the idea that in 2020 there are still (or ever were) statues erected in their honor defines the imagination, as well as anything faintly American. What's more, that many of these were erected a full fifty years after the Civil War reveals that their intent was not to honor those men so much as reinforce the culture and ideology of white supremacy in the South, post-Reconstruction and during Jim Crow. That's almost a whole other story.

 

[SPK145]

When do the MLK statues and holiday get canceled as he was anti-gay and certainly no friend to women?

See how silly all of this is?

 

[SHUHoopsFan]

When do the MLK statues and holiday get canceled as he was anti-gay and certainly no friend to women?

See how silly all of this is?

Only knocked a woman across the room the morning he was killed. Let it go. Nothing to see here. LOL

Very few know or even care whole paragraphs of his doctorate were plagerized.

 

[HALL85]

Heard a great interview with ex-NY Gov David Patterson today who is a voice of reason on this topic. He said where do you draw the line and brought up Malcolm X, and called out all of the things he did early in his life including calling for Black Supremacy. He then went on to recount how he went to Mecca and converted and later denounced the Nation of Islam, who he was ultimately murdered by. He pointed out the number of schools, etc. that are named for him and if we are going to judge people for their whole life, we need to be consistent.

 

[SHUHoopsFan]

we need to be consistent.

Yeah, that might happen. LOL

 

[donnie_baseball]

There are no Hitler statues and no Hitler Universities even though he worked absolute wonders for a German economy that was in shambles. We still all know who he is though cuz he’s still in the history books. Just $0.02

On one hand you could say “well so many people owned slaves,” but on the other hand, owning a slave didn’t just entail having a servant who happened to be unpaid. An extremely disturbing number of slaves were separated from their children or parents, savagely beaten regularly, and raped. The atrocities go beyond the already deplorable action of depriving someone of the most basic freedom.

How is Hitler an apt comparison to slavery, or really anything that's occurred in the last 2 centuries? Your argument isn't worth the 2 cents.

You have to view historical figures through the lens of their time. If you're going to put people from the past on trial, you're going to have a long backlog. People making dopey arguments like your are also tearing down statues of Lincoln and other abolitionists. How do you square that?

 

[SHUHoopsFan]

How is Hitler an apt comparison to slavery, or really anything that's occurred in the last 2 centuries? Your argument isn't worth the 2 cents.

You have to view historical figures through the lens of their time. If you're going to put people from the past on trial, you're going to have a long backlog. People making dopey arguments like your are also tearing down statues of Lincoln and other abolitionists. How do you square that?

We're getting closer by the day to any dude who has ever honked their car horn at a hot chick will be put on trial.