In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu

This post has 14 comments with rating of 4.2/514

• 
  Roddd
  September 13th, 2018
  

  

  For Landrieu to write about something he actually needs to research the subject instead of repeating revisionist propoganda.

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  turkeydog
  September 13th, 2018
  

  Democrats and their statues…

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  Optimus94
  September 13th, 2018
  

  

  “There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence for it.”

  Confederates = Traitors

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  loonyboyx
  September 13th, 2018
  

  

  Republicans and the tantrums over KKK created statues.

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  caesar963
  September 13th, 2018
  

  It is an historical fact that the Democrats erected those controversial statues, for political reasons, in the main. We should embrace our history, in the broadest sense, both good and bad. Our task is to attempt to understand our ancestors and try to comprehend why they did what they did. Motivation is multifactorial. They were complex beings, like us, and thought that they were doing the right things for the right reasons.
  Put their actions in context and don’t make the same mistakes - we’re all victim/perpetrators, none of us are immaculate.

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  darci663
  September 13th, 2018
  

  

  Optimus94 Confederates = Traitors

  If this is true, so is the country who broke away from Brittan back in 1776 ;)

  Most of these Liberal cupcakes are ready to tear down statues of Presidents who owned (legally) slaves. About time to place a mandatory 10-year prison sentence on anyone caught willfully destroying statues and monuments.

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  marcodiluce
  September 13th, 2018
  

  It is just farcical how the “race” topic finds its most avid exploiters among whites presumably consumed with “guilt”. Slavery was the norm of those days where poor people or races (particularly in a hungry Africa) had been manipulated by the fantasy of a better life, just like today’s migrants. Human trafficking under a different name. Liberal fascists, particularly whites, perpetuate this victimhood industry, where colored people are distracted from their tremendous achievements, particularly in the United States, which they are duped into resenting!

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  loonyboyx
  September 13th, 2018
  

  caesar963 - It’s also a fact they the Dems were a very different party back then. You need to look past labels and understand the context. They were erect by the KKK to intimidate black people. If you support that then shame on you.

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  Jiminy Cricket
  September 13th, 2018
  

  Confederates = Traitors?

  You need to read up on the subject, Optimus94. America’s Civil War is certainly complex where it comes to motives, but one thing is certain, secession is not traitorous. The war was less than a decade following our declaration of independence, and Lee was a Virginian. Study the historical context before making quick judgments. Virginia was the birth place of the USA. Lee’s loyalty was Virginia first, even though he was against secession and slavery.

  I recommend the audiobook, Lee: A Life of Virtue by John Perry. You can check it out on Hoopla through your local library.

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  caesar963
  September 13th, 2018
  

  loonyboyx - Nothing in what I said could rationally lead you to believe that I support racism in any manifestation whatsoever. Racial theory is a false construct and has been a blight on humanity.
  Many of the statues were erected to bolster a sense of cultural identity for the defeated side of the war between the States. It’s reductionism of the highest order to narrow motive to a single factor.

  It is true that the Democrats erected the statues, for political reasons, and they are now seeking to remove them for equally political reasons. You’re quite correct that they did go through a Klan/Jim Crow/lynching/Segregation phase.

  Eternal shame on them.

  Is it not also correct to maintain that they are still obsessed with racial difference, utilising it as a ploy for electoral advantage, rather than attempting to be blind to race and gauging people solely by the content of their character?
  And this is not to absolve what was once the party of Lincoln.

  As for the statues, erasing the past and recreating it is what the protagonist of 1984 used to do as his day job. Leave the relics and artifacts where they are - but put them in context. Include a plaque with alternate perspectives and views, as in a museum. Allow them to be a learning opportunity.
  Instead, vacuous public figures opportunistically seek advantage by playing politics with them.

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  Gweilo
  September 14th, 2018
  

  So these statues were erected by Democrats, but if the current Democrats want to remove them to repudiate the statement they make, they can’t?

  Anyway, that accepts that the statues are political expressions, not works of art, much less “history”. Having them in public places, on state property, implies the state endorses them and all they imply.
  Put them on private land and then the government will leave you to worship them.

  In Germany they don’t allow physical memorials to the Nazi regime; but they certainly have not forgotten their history.

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  caesar963
  September 14th, 2018
  

  In actual fact a very sizeable minority of the German people certainly are in the process of “forgetting” their history right now, as observable in the recent round of elections (the Austrians have never had to confront their atrocities, to a very large extent). I’m particularly disturbed by this as a European.
  However, Germany does offer a good example - large physical memorials are allowed, hopefully putting the Nazi regime into its proper context. The Reichsparteigelande (Nazi Party Rally Grounds) are available to view in Nuremberg. The cruel megalomania of the Nazi architectural plan (inter alia) is in evidence. Obvously these are are on property held by the state, but nobody would infer that the present German government approve of the Nazi racial programme, for instance.

  A similar case can be made for allowing the Colosseum to remain standing in the public sphere. Imagine the acts of cruelty, barbarism and Imperial propaganda which took place there. But such can be put into a proper context, and this monument lasts. This building expresses the essence of history. Civilisation is enhanced by its continued presence, and that of all the other sites.

  My close neighbour, Great Britain, allows statues of Nelson, Cromwell, Churchill and innumerable sanguinary Kings and Queens, in the most prominent of locations. Does this mean that the modern UK endorses slavery, rapine, mass murder and enforced famine? (I certainly hope not!)

  This “deletion of the past” tendency is present everywhere - Turkey totally denies its genocide of the Christian Armenians; Japan minimises its wholesale atrocities committed during WW2. More to the point the Poles have engaged in a long-term effort to deny and minimise their complicity in the Holocaust. They have attempted to cover up history and criminalise discussion - this isn’t the way to come to terms with the past. What historians and ordinary citizens need in Poland and beyond is more research, more willingness to look into the past and understand the horrors of the Holocaust and other appalling events – not less.

  Erase the past in such a manner, for immediate purposes, and we learn nothing. A politician pulls a conjuring trick and, as always, we dance to their tune. We allow the same party to dispose of the evidence of their guilt.
  Groan - why we so smart, yet so stoopid? So easily distracted?
  This book could be subtitled: “A White Southerner Seeks to Conceal the Past and Derive Facile Electoral Benefit From the Ploy.” The Orwellian parallels are, as usual, ubiquitous.

  Why not debate the past, in all its complexity, use every artifact as an opportunity to achieve clarity?

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  caesar963
  September 14th, 2018
  

  But, as usual, thanks for the book, doorman, you’ve provided an “entryway” to other perspectives, and facilitated further stimulating debate!

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu
• 
  darci663
  September 16th, 2018
  

  

  Gweilo
  In Germany they don’t allow physical memorials to the Nazi regime; but they certainly have not forgotten their history.

  These are the same people that will jail a person for giving the Nazi salute. In the 1940’s, they would jail a person FOR giving the Nazi salute. I see no difference in freedom.

  I would bet a month of paychecks that more people follow the beliefs of Hitler now that they did when he was alive. So we have learned nothing from the past.

  In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History - Mitch Landrieu

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