Happy June Teenth! This morning I started my day with thoughts on the holiday, and I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t know if Galveston had a monument to this historic day – thankfully a quick google search led me to finding out that it does… and now I have a new item to see next time I’m on the island. But I digress – random musings led me to the following thoughts I wanted to share in my first post, a post on June Teenth. You can agree or disagree, but today is a day for self reflection, and I wanted to share my musings.
I know the current climate centers on systemic oppression, and I don’t want to deny the existence of that and our need to continue to improve. I also don’t want to deny that no other civilization has created a climate more ripe for diverse betterment, and access to the possibility of success regardless of race, religion, creed or sexuality. We are here because of our past, both beautiful and ugly.
George Washington Carver once said “Education is the key to unlock the golden door of Freedom” So this is my random conversational posit.
We have a problem with hero worship in this country… and that is problematic for many reasons… George Washington owned slaves (a rather large number of them) does that put the Washington monument in question? While no one can doubt his positive impact on our society, There are swirling questions around MLK Jr and his actions toward women, if these things prove to be true, as seen through the lens of the #metoo movement, are his monuments in question?
The Buffalo Soldiers were the first black regiment of the American Cavalry, they were instrumental in the westward expansion of our nation following the civil war. There is a museum, a touring troop of proud reenactors, and several beautiful monuments dedicated to their memory.
Growing up I knew what Juneteenth was from my earliest memories of understanding what a holiday beyond Christmas is… it is a bittersweet moment in Texas History, sweet because it officially ended slavery in the US, bitter because it was 2 years after enaction by the central US government. June teenth and the end of the war allowed for the creation of this first black Cavalry unit. The Buffalo soldiers are as integral to Texas history as they are to our story as a nation, as they cleared the way for expansion from Palo Duro canyon to the Guadalupe mountains and points west. Emotionally I respond to the romanticized version of their history as being very inspirational. Unfortunately they were heavily involved in the systematic destruction of the Native American population of the American West and responsible for implementing what today we would call genocide. Generally historians temper this reality with explanations that they were “just soldiers” who were following orders from the US chain of command, and were functioning in a racist society (which is not untrue). More later, on this idea of the men on the ground just doing the best they could in an oppressive system…
Back to civil the war era – Even Abraham Lincoln said some pretty racist things (talk of not caring either way about slaves, but if emancipation preserves the union he’s all for it, talk of shipping Africans off the continent to solve the crisis, stating he was in no way for their social or political equality) – in the end he did act and is largely responsible for the emancipation of slaves and the end of slavery… but what was his real motivation? If we are ascertaining motivation in deciding whether a memorial stands… more on that later. He also authorized the hanging of almost 40 native Americans around the same time of the emancipation proclamation. I could go into how June teenth is only the date the last southern slaves were freed – slaves in the last union slaveholding states were allowed to be held legally in bondage for another 6 months, and how that is glossed over to further the myth of the great white saviouring north… but you can look those details up if you’re so inclined.
From a moral standpoint the only confederate statues I have a real issue with people calling “racist” are memorials to the common soldier, several hundred thousand of which died defending their homes from invasion in a war they did not start. The majority of these soldiers didn’t own a slave and could never hope to be that rich… would you die for the possibility of winning the lottery?? These men were defending their homeland and following the chain of command in an oppressive system… the Elite of the North had grown used to cheap materials from the south, and the elite of the south had grown rich providing those cheap goods. The majority of rank and file confederates were just trying to survive. But why do historians not temper the story of the confederate soldier as they do the buffalo soldier?
The question of confederate generals is a bit muddier… most were wealthy and powerful white men, but so were political leaders of the north. Many owned slaves (but again see George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and let’s not even get started on Native American genocide) Should their monuments stand? If we see them as an artistic representation of our history (many of them truly are beautiful), it can start great conversations about humanity and the complexity of our history, and nature… Robert E Lee is quoted as calling slavery “Moral and Political evil” and Nathan Bedford Forrest disbanded the KKK and ordered the costumes destroyed… later in life he advocated for admission of black students to law school. This ties into my statement earlier on whether we judge a man on motivation or action?
Calling Southerners “traitors” doesn’t actually mean anything, many Confederate soldiers’ Grandfathers were “traitors” when they fought in the revolutionary war for the creation of the USA… while the victor does write the history, where is the moral high ground in saying only the most powerful control the narrative?
History, like our nature, is complex… the south has borne the punishment for our racist past long enough… it is an American problem, not a Southern one, why should Southern monuments be the only ones destroyed? A quick search on How the North was complicit in slavery will illustrate that no one region should take the blame. Should we have stood up against racist organizations co-opting symbols of “southern heritage”? Absolutely. But just as the cross was used during the inquisition, the witch trials, and the crusades… can what a symbol means change?
Just as the buffalo soldiers and the 18 year old privates who died under the confederate flag may not have known exactly what they were fighting for… the current race war doesn’t have to be a war, who stands to benefit from a society so distracted by looting and riots and statues? Who stands to benefit by a divided US? We can work better together, to stop those northern and southern elites who don’t care if a city burns, because they have homes in 5 others.
Equality means a logic being applied equally, if it cannot be applied to both sides of the Mason-Dixon, all colors of skin, or all genders equally… then it is not equality, it is in itself oppression and revision.
I guess the question is, where do we go from here? Do we understand that our diverse pantheon of American human gods are just that, human, and keep them all installed to allow the ever changing understanding of our past to have a visual representation, or do we remove all reference to the individual and focus only on the collective?
Earlier, I touched on the aesthetic beauty of some memorials, from an artistic standpoint they can be objectively beautiful. A memorial is dependent on the experience of the viewer, when I see the Juneteenth monument in Galveston, I don’t feel the same feelings a descendant of slaves may feel… I feel sadness that the state I loved waited another two years to abolish slavery, and joy that there was finally freedom, but each individuals experience is different. I hope that we all contemplate not just the beauty of the physical monument, but the beauty of the story it tells… I hope the one thing each viewer shares is a desire to contemplate their own place in history.
The story of the fallible nature of man, and the names of murderers, adulterers, and oppressors are memorialized in the most printed book of all time, some of them ended up doing great things, others not so much. Im pretty sure all religious texts share that trait… Im only really familiar with one, and the running theme of that book is the story of redemption. Why should we hold our ancestors to standards we ourselves struggle to live up to? Condoleeza Rice stated her opinion of “Keep your History before you” in her statement against sanitizing history. I hope that our memorials as a civilization can tell a story of redemption. A story where we don’t worship the fallible – we may memorialize them, but no mere human is worthy of glorification.
Porch Swing Confessional 