Here's a link to an interesting BBC News article that explores the experiences of four nations as they dealt with cast or sculpted images that served as reminders of dark historical eras --- Iraq, India, Germany and the United States.
In Iraq, statues of Saddam Hussein have been destroyed; in India, reminders of colonialism have been removed to obscure locations and largely forgotten; in Germany, graven reminders of the Third Reich have been destroyed but the nation sought and found another way to commemorate, and learn from, its dark past; and in the United States, monuments to secessionist Civil War notables currently are under attack ---- again.
Much of the conversation in the United States has been skewed by the false impression that these images are "history" when in fact, they're merely objects that play roles in the narrative of history. How they're dealt with will be just another footnote.
One of the suggested solutions has been to remove these images to museums, cemeteries or history "parks" where they can be re-erected and appropriately interpreted. The difficulty faced by many cities and institutions that have removed statues, however, is that no one seems to want them. Or at least no one wants to spend the cash required to develop places for them.
There's been a good deal of screeching and hollering lately among white folk about these images and how they're being treated. Often overlooked is the fact that a majority were erected many years after the Civil War as part of a conscious effort to reinterpret a grubby rebellion to preserve slavery into some sort of glorious lost cause. That makes them interesting objects, but not "history" in the larger sense.
So the emphasis often shifts, as white folks clutch their pearls, away from the reasons why black folks and their allies are angry enough to deface and/or pull those statues down. And that's what everyone needs to focus on, looking hard at the root causes of discontent and working to find solutions.
No comments:
Post a Comment