So before I post much of anything, here are a few Tweets from the POTUS:
Okay, so story time…
I want to make a few things as transparent as possible, should you happen to be a new reader:
- I did not vote for Donald Trump
- I would never vote for Donald Trump
- I do not approve of the practices of President Donald Trump
- But I don’t hate Donald Trump. I believe somewhere in there he has a good heart. I just don’t GET him right now.
- I liked him as a celebrity at one point, and I was a regular viewer of The Celebrity Apprentice
Now that we’ve put those chips on the table, I’ve been thinking pretty hard about how difficult it might be to not get political in classes this coming semester. A few of my independent study students have already asked me about my comments on CCCC and what is going on (which is awesome, in that I get to teach them about real world events, but is also horrifying in that I strive to not bring politics into things whenever possible and this is a place where my position is out there and hard to dodge). My worries about such things get deeper when I see things like the Tweets above.
If you’re reading this and you’re white, let me be painfully blunt: this take is horrific and built almost entirely from white privilege and colonialism. What the President of the United States is basically saying is that it’s a real shame that we’re tearing up the culture of America by removing memorials to people who, in actuality, were trying to tear up the culture of America. They’re losers. They’re footnotes in history, angry little flashes in the racist, fascist encoded memories that are utilized not to celebrate any proud past but instead are used as a wink and a nod to indicate current prejudices and hate. The kind of people who will miss those statues are the kind of people who drive a car into a crowd to kill someone.
But the rest of what Trump says here should sound tone deaf. What Americans did– this “great” country– was come here and steal the land, then develop it, dismantle the culture, eat the culture that was here and try to put the few remnants it couldn’t swallow or burn down into little pockets where the land was useless, hoping to choke out that culture and see it die.
But if we look past the genocidal origins of America, and we look past the odd rebellious oldest child of the motherland that is Britain routine, the legacy of wars in this country is pretty sad. And if you took US history in high school, you know the whole basis for our understanding of history is our legacy of war.
1. Attacked homeland
2. Ran roughshod over North America with help of pretty much anyone while buying humans to use as farming implements and house servants, either with or against various European powers and or Indigenous cultures
3. Went to war with itself, because that whole leaving Britain thing seemed like a good plan for leaving the not-even-fully-formed America. Accidentally freed the people they bought in this one.
4. Came back together, but never really reconciled the North vs. South dynamic (see the Trump tweets above), but went to Europe for an “America, F-Yeah” moment in World War I.
5. Saved some for the sequel, though if you look closely at history we didn’t enter WWII to stop Hitler. We entered WWII because Japan attacked us. And boy oh boy did we get them. Bar Trivia Tidbit: one nation has ever used a WMD. It was the United States, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
6. Coasting on the heels of WWI and WWII, America would go on to never actually win another war, strictly speaking. The next one was Korea. Had we handled that better, there might not be a problem with North Korea now.
7. Next was Vietnam. We all know that story, right?
8. The next actual war is the first Gulf War, which we just sort of “left” and called a win. There were lots of little things between ‘Nam and the Gulf, though, like Panama, Bay of Pigs, Grenada.
9. There was Bosnia, and the Iran/Contra thing, but the next actual war was when we turned Afghanistan into a flaming parking lot after 911. We’re still there.
10. And Iraq. We’re still there.
So when I first got upset with someone about this whole fetishization of the South, I asked why we’d want to celebrate the loser. Historically, though, it might be that we lose as often as we win in war, so perhaps that’s part of the legacy, the persistence of the idea that proud white dudes who wanted to make sure only white dudes were powerful is worth more than the historical accuracy of how things played out.
Let me put that another way: people who want confederate flags and Robert E Lee statues think we won in Korea and Vietnam, right? They think we’ve won in Afghanistan and in Iraq. They believe so strongly in a binary where America is right and everything else is wrong that they cannot see the follies that we’ve committed.
Now don’t get me wrong. In spite of the fact that white colonists killed most of my ancestors and herded a large number of what was left to Oklahoma on something people enjoy visiting called “the trail of tears,” and in spite of the fact that my direct ancestors had to hide and flee to Indiana to blend in with a Mexican population that was tolerated as long as it stayed away from the white population, I love America. I am proud of the ideas that build the foundation of this nation. And I know that the people who did my ancestors wrong are dead, even if we still build statues and print their faces on our currency (I see you, Andrew Jackson). I know it’s not your fault, if you’re white and reading this. And I love you because you’re free and you have the right to your opinion. So long as you’re not hurting other people, you’re aces with me.
What I’m not proud of how people try to reduce everything to a binary and to cast themselves as blameless heroes. I understand why white men do it, I just don’t understand why anyone else accepts it and lets it persist. Maybe I was born weird, but I believe in taking responsibility for my mistakes and admitting my shortcomings. I don’t know how anyone can be an adult and NOT do that.
I’m also not trying to insult our military by questioning if we “won” the wars I mentioned here. I am proud to shake the hand of anyone who put their life on the line to defend this country, and the last thing I’d do is call them “losers.” What I mean is that as a nation, our lifesblood seems to be putting history into Photoshop to make an image people will swipe right on.
It’s a foolish, binary belief that anyone who is a famous historical figure from the Confederate States of America is worthy of praise and should be celebrated as a “rich” part of our history. Robert E Lee was a piece of shit. He was a lucky general who made a glaring mistake that most people don’t make in games of Risk, he surrendered not long after he became the head of the Confederate military, he owned slaves who he treated like crap, and he was pretty sure, even when he tried to talk about slavery as a bad thing, that we were still treating slaves better than they’d been treated in their native land. You can read a little more here. Or here, where you can read a fascinating quote from a letter where Lee claims that slavery is worse for white people than for slaves and that those being enslaved need the tough discipline of their white masters to grow as a race. That’s your southern fucking hero. He’s a worthless piece of trash, racist and delusional, drunk on his own whiteness and the theory that he knows what is right because he is white.
It has to stop, people. It just has to stop. It’s cool to be white, I’m sure, but those who experience the benefits of being white, straight, male and relatively well off need to just shut up and stop thinking that their social position grants them magic “I know it all” powers. None of us care what you’re sure of. Talk to science. We want some evidence.
Let me give you two examples. If you’ve been following me this week, I’ve been trying to bring change for CCCC, the big composition and communication conference. One white person told me there was no way the conference could be cancelled (she knew this because she’s older and white, I guess), then she contradicted several things I suggested as alternatives, each time being “sure” of what she said but offering no evidence or support. Bear in mind I haven’t claimed to have a solution to the problems I see– I have simply suggested things we might try. In another similar conversation, an older white male scholar told me that we couldn’t use the internet to allow people to present remotely because of how “expensive” that amount of “internet power” is. Because you know, I can stream Twitch High Def video on my phone, but doing that for a screen in Kansas City– presumably because the wires in the phone are black and scare the local police– would be impossible. The evidence provided was that the one time, at a conference, that this person tried to get internet for a room it was going to be $300 for an hour. This hotel, as best I can tell, was Mister Richington’s House of You Must Not Understand how The Fucking Internet Works So I’m Going to Bilk You Inns and Suites. Of course the conference in question was the most elitist of all the conferences in our field, so I’m sure the hotel WAS pretty snooty and high class. I’d imagine I wouldn’t have been allowed through the door in my usual travel gear of comic book hero t-shirt, khaki shorts and sandals. Because dressing in uncomfortable formal clothing while traveling is a sign of intelligence, of course. Only an idiot wants to be comfortable on a plane, or driving for eight hours straight. Duh!
But that doesn’t change what people are “sure” of. One thing I will promise you: I don’t claim I’m sure of something unless I actually AM sure of it. And I’m sure that Robert E Lee doesn’t need memorials. I’m sure of that because HE was sure of that himself before he died, and he was an ego driven white dude who hated people who were a different color. Building a memorial to Lee, as your hero, is the same as spitting in his face, because he told you not to do it. Unless, of course, you’re sure he’d want it.
Just like our President is probably sure that we’re losing such beauty in our country right now.
Mr. President, respectfully, nothing is uglier than the face of a racist, hateful white man. You need to understand that. You will never understand the country you claim to love and respect if you lament that a man who lost a war to try to destroy the office you hold, who wanted to dismantle the house you live in, who thought owning and viciously beating people of color made them better people, is no longer memorialized as a statue and no longer has his name on schools and parks.
The people who care about it care for the wrong reason. They don’t love Robert E Lee. They hate people who aren’t white.
The only statue they need to see is a 30 foot tall bronze middle finger. I’ll be glad to chip in to have one forged to replace any and all Robert E Lee statues we might remove. I’d hate for parks to have… you know… like trees or flowers or a swing set or something instead. Better we leave a symbol of hate, right? People should look out across this land and see hate and resentment. Is that our legacy? Is that what America is, Mr. President?
How is it you put it most often, Sir?
Sad!
*Note: I don’t really imagine that the President would ever entertain reading a post of mine, btw. I know I’m not important enough, he’s really busy, and I exceeded 140 characters. If by some miracle Mr. Trump should ever read anything I’ve said, though– FREE LEONARD PELTIER! No President has even responded to my annual request for this, so prove me wrong and show you care. Pardon someone other than yourself, and see a little justice done.