Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
All the "sticks and stones" thinking in the world won't change the fact that symbols reinforce and affirm mainstream cultural ideas - good or bad. In this case, it reinforces the notion that it's OK to trivialize the concerns of the historic out-groups, even without discriminatory signs in store windows, over water fountains, etc.
The reason these symbols (statues, but others too) are so hurtful is that implicitly approve of past hurtful acts the in-group committed against the out-group, or at least trivialize them. It also communicates the idea that out-group members are second class human beings, and therefore less deserving in the way of help, aid, and informal social connections to make easier the day-to-day business of living relative to the in-group. It happened with lesbians and gays 20 and 30 years ago (and still does to a lesser extent) and happens to transsexuals today. No doubt to Muslims too, after 9/11 and ISIS attacks and such. Just because the blatant no-interpretation-needed forms of discrimination and bigotry are shamed into rarity does not mean the in-group is fully accepting of out-group members.
They can't hurt you, period, you are not and never have been a slave and the statue was never erected to honor slavery in the first place. Do we need to burn the United States flag because it hurts Native Americans feelings? Take down statues of General Custer? Close the Little Bighorn? It's just stupid and embarrassing to people who are not wusses.
These statues coming down or staying are of little actual consequence to normal life. If towns and states vote to take them down, so be it. It is the will of the majority of the locals.
Having said that, those obsessed with seeing them all torn down, along with now moving into the FF's and Columbus, seem to be suffering from mental illness.
Status:
"Moldy Tater Gangrene, even before Moscow Marge."
(set 2 days ago)
Location: Dallas, TX
5,790 posts, read 3,599,675 times
Reputation: 5697
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roaddog
They can't hurt you, period, you are not and never have been a slave and the statue was never erected to honor slavery in the first place. Do we need to burn the United States flag because it hurts Native Americans feelings? Take down statues of General Custer? Close the Little Bighorn? It's just stupid and embarrassing to people who are not wusses.
Really, go back and read my last post plus Green Mariner's comment about it. As for "never erected to honor slavery", that's pretty flimsy. Erecting monuments to any leader or general well-known and tightly associated with a clearly unjust cause IS an implicit affirmation of the cause they fought for. If somebody erected a statue in honor of British general in the Revolutionary War, would you really believe me if I said "I'm honoring the man, not the cause he fought for (i.e. keep the colonies British)"? Same thing if I erected a statue in honor of a clearly unrepentant-unto-death segregationist governor (Ross Barnett of MS comes to mind. So, I believe, AR gov. Orval Falbus).
As for the US flag hurting Native American's feelings -- I don't know because I haven't asked a Native American about it, and I doubt you've asked them about it either. However, I trust if and when Native Americans do get upset about it, they'll make their concerns know. If there's sizable objection to it, then yes, I would support changing the Stars and Stripes to some other, more unifying, symbol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roaddog
Take down statues of General Custer? Close the Little Bighorn?
See above, the same applies here as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roaddog
It's just stupid and embarrassing to people who are not wusses.
Two points: (1) The establishment in-crowd has always labeled as "wusses" anyone who calls for changes in the culture or actual practices that would benefit and/or reduce harm to the disempowered out-crowd -- even that benefit blue-collar workers in such matters like - worker safety, the 8 hour work day, and such.
(2) Castigating wussies. So you're saying - in effect - that weak or sensitive people deserve trivializing or even contempt on account of their being weak and sensitive alone? If so, then how do you reconcile that with their being "endowed with certain unalienable rights"? At any rate, saying the weak or sensitive deserve trivializing is hardly a mindset conducive to democracy, representative republics, whatever you care to call them. As such, I consider such an attitude inescapably undemocratic and thus ultimately treacherous to the principles the US was founded upon. This land, and the Constitution, was not made just for the "normal", "decent", "strong-backboned", "thick-skinned" people.
They can't hurt you, period, you are not and never have been a slave and the statue was never erected to honor slavery in the first place. Do we need to burn the United States flag because it hurts Native Americans feelings? Take down statues of General Custer? Close the Little Bighorn? It's just stupid and embarrassing to people who are not wusses.
Agree, but considering the average IQ of those so vocal about it, not surprising! Somebody should probably tell them that the war has been over for a century and a half. LOL. They're still looking for Jim Crow! Look, there he is! There he is over there. Hurry, get him! Most people can just not look at something that is so offensive, but not them! They don't care if somebody else may have a different opinion. Only their opinion matters. Bunch of bigots and black supremacist!
First, any symbol of a nation, region, community, etc. should unite, not divide, a community. That's the starting point. Hence, if substantial numbers of people object to the symbol, then the symbol's simply inappropriate. Native Americans do not object to the Stars and Stripes. Racial minorities, particularly blacks, do object to Confederata, and I frankly don't blame them.
Should Native Americans object to the Stars and Stripes? Different issue, but I'm not Native American and therefore am not in a position to say what they should object to.
[quote=mohawkx;49530409]Sounds right. All those monuments came into being between 1895 and 1925, not after the Civil War and not to commemorate the civil war heros.
They were put in place in response to Jim Crow laws and SCOTUS rulings that were passed claiming that blacks were separate from whites.
They were usually put in the center of town to remind the blacks that we whites run this place and don't you ever forget it.
It's time for them to go. Whites don't run the place any more. Get used to it.[/QUOTEt
This post just screams I hate all white people!!! Pretty sad...
"Living while white." Is that the same thing as "driving while black?" I mean, now we're guilty of something because of the color of skin we're born with? Sheeze!
would blacks have to pay to, with them being equal under the law. what about illegal immigrants, would they have to pay for reparation out of their pockets?
What about biracial or multiracial people? Do they only pay half or a fourth or whatever percentage of "white" they are? Or do they get a pass because of the one drop rule?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
