Confederates in the attic
The tut-tutting that in some cases verges on hysteria about the
Virginia governor proclaiming Confederate History Month is misplaced on
many levels. For one thing, it only reinforces the bunker mentality of
many Southern whites — who do not by any means all live in the South —
that their customs, culture and history are under attack. Thus, it
drives them even more into the propaganda ministry of the white-right on
Fox "News" and talk radio. I'm also uncomfortable with the implied
censorship of those who would ban discussion of the Confederacy except
as an indictment of slavery. And it's an invitation to yet more
conformity in a big-box, chain-stored America that was once much more
diverse in its cultures.
President Obama is right in saying that one can't understand the
Civil War without understanding slavery. One can't understand even
today's America without understanding the Civil War, a lifetime quest.
And, I am sorry to tell my liberal and progressive friends, that one
can't understand all these things, as well as many of the questions
facing the union today, without a deep study of the Confederacy. Note
"deep study." Not a white-right call to ignorant "heritage."
Slavery was a great evil, one that was only partially atoned for at
places such as Antietam, Chickamuga and Gettysburg. It was not merely
the creation of the South, but the nation as a whole. More and more
histories of slavery are available, showing it in all its brutality but
also the courage of the people and richness of the cultures they
developed. Historians have also made great progress in plumbing
Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the era of lynchings — all essential knowledge
of our quest to make a more perfect union. As for Confederate history,
bring it on.
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