Robert Perry lives in Arlington Virginia and he's been trying to get them to
change the name of Jefferson Davis Highway for years now, to no avail. And,
the South Carolina legislature is still waiting for enough votes to take the
flag down from the State Building. For as long as I've been alive, there has
been a conspiracy of silence about why the Southern Cause is commemorated,
the plantation houses made tourist attractions, the Confederate Flag treated
with reverence. It has all been romanticized in films, in novels. From the
point of view of black people whose ancestors were enslaved and who are
still treated as second class citizens, it is all certainly evil, as are the
people who promoted it.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2015 12:53 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: my blog carl jarvis
Subject: [blind-democracy] Confronting Southern 'Victimhood'
Jefferson Davis defied the laws of his government, and he became a traitor.
He left his job as a senator of the United States, and allowed himself to be
crowned president of the confederacy. Davis was certainly not a noble man,
being president, he was ultimately responsible for all the deaths and ruin
brought about by this unholy war. But Evil? As far as I'm concerned,
Jefferson Davis was just another puffed up loser. No more and no less than
Adolph Hitler or Czar Nicholas II, or
chang kai shek, or many many others. So why do we spend so much of our
energy lifting Jefferson Davis up as if he were a fallen hero?
And by the way, Jefferson Davis is my great-great-great uncle. My great
grandmother Sarah Davis Hickman was his niece. But I feel no kinship, nor a
need to hold him up. He did what he did for his own reasons, and he paid
for them. Just as do each of us.
What should concern us, trouble our Souls, is the fact that those who
worship the likes of Jefferson Davis, are actually yearning for a return to
those long ago days. No, say what you will. But tell me this, how many
Black people do you know who hold up Jefferson Davis as some fallen hero?
Davis represents all that was ugly then. And worshiping him today is simply
a sign that bigotry and racism continue to be seen as acceptable. And the
same is true of the Confederate Flag. And so is dressing up in the Losers
Uniforms and play acting that we are back in those "glory days". We are in
deep denial if we believe in any part of what the confederacy stood for.
When the Colonies took up arms against England, there were many local folk
who supported the King. But look around the history books and tell me if
you find any English Flags fluttering above local court houses following the
establishment of the Union.
Today, none of us have any control over who we are related to. Past or
present. In fact, none of us living today have any claim to that short
lived Confederacy. Some of my relatives fought for the Union, and some for
the Traitors. But that was what was going on back then.
We have no say, nor in fact do we really have a firm understanding of the
events and the forces at play back then. We have enough on our hands
sorting out today's mess.
Jefferson Davis was just a man who lived and went about his business back in
another time. And that flag, and all the other trinkets of the Losers,
should be tucked away for our grandchildren to see as a backdrop to lessons
about how our ancestors failed to treat one another with respect. The flag
now posted at the Charleston Court House should be shown as a reminder to
future generations, that once upon a time our People did not know how to
treat one another. That flag represents the collective shame of All People
in All of these United States.
And upon you, uncle Jefferson Davis, I close the cover of the book.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/1/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Robert Parry.
Parry writes: "Unlike the Germans after World War II who collectively
shouldered blame for the Holocaust and the war's devastation,
America's white Southerners never confessed to the evil that they had
committed by enslaving African-Americans and then pushing the United
States into a bloody Civil War in their defense of human bondage."
Supporters gather for a rally to protest the removal of the flags from
the Confederate Memorial Saturday, June 27, 2015, in Montgomery, Alabama.
(photo: Julie Bennett/AL.com)
Confronting Southern 'Victimhood'
By Robert Parry, Consortium News
01 July 15
Many white Southerners are getting their backs up again over demands
that the Confederate flag and other symbols of slavery be removed. But
the core problem is that the South never admitted that slavery and
then segregation were wrong, instead offering endless excuses, writes
Northern aggression."
Unlike the Germans after World War II who collectively shouldered
blame for the Holocaust and the war's devastation, America's white
Southerners never confessed to the evil that they had committed by
enslaving African-Americans and then pushing the United States into a
bloody Civil War in their defense of human bondage.
Instead of a frank admission of guilt, there have been endless excuses
and obfuscations. Confederate apologists insist that slavery wasn't
really all that bad for blacks, that the North's hands weren't clean
either, that the Civil War was really just about differing
interpretations of the Constitution, that white Southerners were the
real victims here - from Sherman's March to the Sea to Reconstruction.
Some white Southerners still prefer to call the conflict "the war of
Indeed, Southern white "victimhood" has been at the heart of muchinjustice and demand accountability.
bloodshed and suffering in the United States not only during the Civil
War and the ensuing decades but through the modern era of the civil
rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s to the present bigoted hatred
of the first African-American president and the coldblooded murders of
nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
Dylann Roof, the alleged perpetrator of the Charleston murders,
apparently was motivated by racist propaganda that highlighted
incidents of black-on-white crime and led Roof to believe that he was
defending the white race, under siege from blacks, another excuse used
to justify the Confederate cause.
Yet, the overriding reality has been centuries of white racist
violence against blacks - from the unspeakable cruelties of slavery to
Jim Crow lynchings to the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and other
civil rights leaders to recent police shootings targeting blacks.
Considering that grim history, what is perhaps most remarkable about
white Southerners is that they as a group have never issued an
unequivocal apology for their systematic abuse of African-Americans,
let alone undertaken a serious commitment to make amends. Instead,
many white Southerners pretend that they are the real victims here.
We see this pattern again with the white backlash against public calls
from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others to retire the
Confederate battle flag and other pro-slavery symbols. This weekend,
news reports revealed a rush among white Southerners to buy the flag
and clothing items featuring the flag. And across the Internet,
Confederate apologists rushed to reprise all the sophistry that has
surrounded the pro-slavery cause for generations.
In Arlington, Virginia, I encountered some of that when I again urged
the County Board to petition the state legislature in Richmond to
remove the name of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from roadways
that pass Arlington National Cemetery (founded to bury Union soldiers
killed in the Civil War) and that skirt historic black neighborhoods
in South Arlington (conveying a racist message of who's still the boss).
Jefferson Davis's name was put on the stretch of Route One in the
early 1920s amid a surge of Confederate pride, a period of increased
lynchings of blacks, a growth in Ku Klux Klan membership, and release
of the movie, "Birth of a Nation," celebrating the KKK as the brave
defender of innocent whites endangered by rampaging blacks. In 1964,
as a counterpoint to the Civil Rights Act, Virginia extended Jefferson
Davis Highway to a roadway near Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon.
'Rankled' and 'Crazy'
A year ago when I first suggested removing Jefferson Davis's name, the
local newspaper treated my appeal as something of a joke, referring to
me as "rankled" and prompting angry responses from some Arlingtonians.
One hostile letter writer declared, "I am very proud of my
Commonwealth's history, but not of the current times, as I'm sure many
others are."
A top Democratic county official confronted me after a public meeting
and upbraided me for raising such a divisive issue when there were
more practical and immediate issues facing the county. The official
said the state legislature would think Arlington County was "crazy" if
it submitted a recommendation on removing Davis's name.
However, after the Charleston massacre, I wrote to the board again:
"When even South Carolina's Republicans say it's time to retire old
symbols of the Confederacy - especially ones associated with slavery,
white supremacy and violence - isn't it time for Arlington County to
petition the state legislature to rename Jefferson Davis Highway
something more appropriate to our racial diversity?
"As we've seen tragically in recent days, symbols carry meaning. They
encourage behavior, either good or bad. And, in the case of
Confederate symbols, it is clear how individuals like Dylann Roof
interpreted them, as a license to murder innocent black people. As for
Confederate President Davis, not only was he a white supremacist who
wished to perpetuate slavery forever, but he also authorized the
murder of captured or surrendering black soldiers of the Union Army,
an order that was acted upon in some of the final battles of the Civil
War.
"There's even an Arlington connection to some of those U.S. Colored
Troops murdered based on Davis's order. Some were trained at our own
Camp Casey before marching south to fight for freedom. Some Camp Casey
recruits fought in the Battle of the Crater in a desperate effort to
save white Union troops who were being slaughtered in battle. However,
after the fighting stopped, Confederate troops - operating under
President Davis's order - executed captured USCT soldiers." [See
Consortiumnews.com's "The Mystery of the Civil War's Camp Casey."] My
letter continued: "As a longtime resident of Arlington, I have often
wondered what we think we are honoring when we name a major highway
after Jefferson Davis. Are we saying that we think slavery was a good
idea? Are we saying that we believe in white supremacy? Are we saying
that we favor murdering black people simply because of the color of
their skin? What message are we sending to our children - and indeed
perhaps to some troubled young people like Dylann Roof?
"Please, finally, petition the legislature to remove Davis's name from
these Arlington roadways - and keep at it even if it requires multiple
efforts.
It
is way past time to do so."
I have received no reply from the County Board. My guess is there will
be the same timidity about riling up the Confederate defenders who
will draw fury from their bottomless well of victimhood. When my
letter circulated on some local message boards, it did prompt a number
of hostile responses (as well as some supportive comments).
But history should tell us that a grave injustice that is not
confronted - that is allowed to lie dormant while its perpetrators
nurse their imaginary grievances - will resurface in a myriad of ugly
and destructive ways. It is best, albeit difficult, to take on the
(Update: Sadly, some of the comments to this story only prove my point.https://consortiumnews.com/2015/06/29/confronting-southern-victimhood/https:
Confederate apologists just can't bring themselves to admit that
American slavery was one of history's great evils. Instead, they
engage in endless sophistry, obfuscation, excuses and misdirection.
The goal apparently is to confuse the topic and distract from the
heart of the matter - that many of them still believe in slavery and
white supremacy. If they don't, why don't they just say so.)
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra
stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can
buy his latest book, America's Stolen Narrative, either in print here
or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can
order Robert Parry's trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to
various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes
America's Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not
valid.
Supporters gather for a rally to protest the removal of the flags from
the Confederate Memorial Saturday, June 27, 2015, in Montgomery, Alabama.
(photo: Julie Bennett/AL.com)
//consortiumnews.com/2015/06/29/confronting-southern-victimhood/Robert Parry.
Confronting Southern 'Victimhood'
By Robert Parry, Consortium News
01 July 15
Many white Southerners are getting their backs up again over demands
that the Confederate flag and other symbols of slavery be removed. But
the core problem is that the South never admitted that slavery and
then segregation were wrong, instead offering endless excuses, writes
nlike the Germans after World War II who collectively shoulderedNorthern aggression."
blame for the Holocaust and the war's devastation, America's white
Southerners never confessed to the evil that they had committed by
enslaving African-Americans and then pushing the United States into a
bloody Civil War in their defense of human bondage.
Instead of a frank admission of guilt, there have been endless excuses
and obfuscations. Confederate apologists insist that slavery wasn't
really all that bad for blacks, that the North's hands weren't clean
either, that the Civil War was really just about differing
interpretations of the Constitution, that white Southerners were the
real victims here - from Sherman's March to the Sea to Reconstruction.
Some white Southerners still prefer to call the conflict "the war of
Indeed, Southern white "victimhood" has been at the heart of muchinjustice and demand accountability.
bloodshed and suffering in the United States not only during the Civil
War and the ensuing decades but through the modern era of the civil
rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s to the present bigoted hatred
of the first African-American president and the coldblooded murders of
nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
Dylann Roof, the alleged perpetrator of the Charleston murders,
apparently was motivated by racist propaganda that highlighted
incidents of black-on-white crime and led Roof to believe that he was
defending the white race, under siege from blacks, another excuse used
to justify the Confederate cause.
Yet, the overriding reality has been centuries of white racist
violence against blacks - from the unspeakable cruelties of slavery to
Jim Crow lynchings to the murders of Martin Luther King Jr. and other
civil rights leaders to recent police shootings targeting blacks.
Considering that grim history, what is perhaps most remarkable about
white Southerners is that they as a group have never issued an
unequivocal apology for their systematic abuse of African-Americans,
let alone undertaken a serious commitment to make amends. Instead,
many white Southerners pretend that they are the real victims here.
We see this pattern again with the white backlash against public calls
from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others to retire the
Confederate battle flag and other pro-slavery symbols. This weekend,
news reports revealed a rush among white Southerners to buy the flag
and clothing items featuring the flag. And across the Internet,
Confederate apologists rushed to reprise all the sophistry that has
surrounded the pro-slavery cause for generations.
In Arlington, Virginia, I encountered some of that when I again urged
the County Board to petition the state legislature in Richmond to
remove the name of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from roadways
that pass Arlington National Cemetery (founded to bury Union soldiers
killed in the Civil War) and that skirt historic black neighborhoods
in South Arlington (conveying a racist message of who's still the boss).
Jefferson Davis's name was put on the stretch of Route One in the
early 1920s amid a surge of Confederate pride, a period of increased
lynchings of blacks, a growth in Ku Klux Klan membership, and release
of the movie, "Birth of a Nation," celebrating the KKK as the brave
defender of innocent whites endangered by rampaging blacks. In 1964,
as a counterpoint to the Civil Rights Act, Virginia extended Jefferson
Davis Highway to a roadway near Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon.
'Rankled' and 'Crazy'
A year ago when I first suggested removing Jefferson Davis's name, the
local newspaper treated my appeal as something of a joke, referring to
me as "rankled" and prompting angry responses from some Arlingtonians.
One hostile letter writer declared, "I am very proud of my
Commonwealth's history, but not of the current times, as I'm sure many
others are."
A top Democratic county official confronted me after a public meeting
and upbraided me for raising such a divisive issue when there were
more practical and immediate issues facing the county. The official
said the state legislature would think Arlington County was "crazy" if
it submitted a recommendation on removing Davis's name.
However, after the Charleston massacre, I wrote to the board again:
"When even South Carolina's Republicans say it's time to retire old
symbols of the Confederacy - especially ones associated with slavery,
white supremacy and violence - isn't it time for Arlington County to
petition the state legislature to rename Jefferson Davis Highway
something more appropriate to our racial diversity?
"As we've seen tragically in recent days, symbols carry meaning. They
encourage behavior, either good or bad. And, in the case of
Confederate symbols, it is clear how individuals like Dylann Roof
interpreted them, as a license to murder innocent black people. As for
Confederate President Davis, not only was he a white supremacist who
wished to perpetuate slavery forever, but he also authorized the
murder of captured or surrendering black soldiers of the Union Army,
an order that was acted upon in some of the final battles of the Civil
War.
"There's even an Arlington connection to some of those U.S. Colored
Troops murdered based on Davis's order. Some were trained at our own
Camp Casey before marching south to fight for freedom. Some Camp Casey
recruits fought in the Battle of the Crater in a desperate effort to
save white Union troops who were being slaughtered in battle. However,
after the fighting stopped, Confederate troops - operating under
President Davis's order - executed captured USCT soldiers." [See
Consortiumnews.com's "The Mystery of the Civil War's Camp Casey."] My
letter continued: "As a longtime resident of Arlington, I have often
wondered what we think we are honoring when we name a major highway
after Jefferson Davis. Are we saying that we think slavery was a good
idea? Are we saying that we believe in white supremacy? Are we saying
that we favor murdering black people simply because of the color of
their skin? What message are we sending to our children - and indeed
perhaps to some troubled young people like Dylann Roof?
"Please, finally, petition the legislature to remove Davis's name from
these Arlington roadways - and keep at it even if it requires multiple
efforts.
It
is way past time to do so."
I have received no reply from the County Board. My guess is there will
be the same timidity about riling up the Confederate defenders who
will draw fury from their bottomless well of victimhood. When my
letter circulated on some local message boards, it did prompt a number
of hostile responses (as well as some supportive comments).
But history should tell us that a grave injustice that is not
confronted - that is allowed to lie dormant while its perpetrators
nurse their imaginary grievances - will resurface in a myriad of ugly
and destructive ways. It is best, albeit difficult, to take on the
(Update: Sadly, some of the comments to this story only prove my point.
Confederate apologists just can't bring themselves to admit that
American slavery was one of history's great evils. Instead, they
engage in endless sophistry, obfuscation, excuses and misdirection.
The goal apparently is to confuse the topic and distract from the
heart of the matter - that many of them still believe in slavery and
white supremacy. If they don't, why don't they just say so.)
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra
stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can
buy his latest book, America's Stolen Narrative, either in print here
or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can
order Robert Parry's trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to
various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes
America's Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
