Debates about Historical Monuments in America

Debates about Historical Monuments in America
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Debates about Historical Monuments in America
The history of monuments like the confederate flag and other symbols in the United States is undesirable. The fraught monuments have existed for a long period, resulting in the rise of the discussions and debates on whether the symbols should be removed or should remain. Various movements involving student’s protests and churches are campaigning for the removal of the historical symbols (Flaherty, 2016). In addition, some speakers in the house of congress support the removal of some symbols as well. According to the latter, the monuments are not desirable to some citizens in the country and the comfortability of such victims should also get consideration. The movements fight for the removal of the monuments to enhance equality between black and white races in the future. Although the activists know and understand that the monuments represent the history of the country, they fight for equality in the present and future days.
David Blight, a professor of American History at Yale University argues that the monuments have failed in the task of promoting maximum unity in the country by leading to more disparity in people from different social classes and races. According to David, the symbols favor some groups in the country and the rest can’t enjoy the meaning of the existing monuments today. The great value of a monument enjoyed by one society might not have a similar significance in another group (Flaherty, 2016). The professor adds on to the issue by indicating that some symbols have led to the exaggeration of knowledge among various people leading to a misunderstanding between different groups. For instance, the Peace Monument in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park was installed to proclaim peace but the memorial ideal did not entail African- Americans (Jonsson, 2019). In this case, the symbol is valuable to the whites-only, revealing racism. The people installing the sign of peace thought that blacks are not valuable to get peace and that’s an incidence of partiality between two races existing in America. Hence, the activist campaign for the removal of Atlanta monument because it promotes racism in the country.
Although the monument in Atlanta marked the end of the wars period and killing of militaries, the people working towards the project implemented partiality, resulting to the fraught nature of the development. The unity and peace represented by the monument excluded the black Americans. Despite the great demographic of blacks in the country, the people working on the symbol could not involve them, meaning that the States was not peaceful for their stay. This issue led to the rise of movements to fight for the removal of the symbol and acknowledgment of blacks in the country. The current campaigns protest against the value of the historical symbol that appeared with major significance in 1911(Jonsson, 2019). In 2017, another racial issue came when a group of protesters against the symbol had clashed with a group fighting for continuity and existence of the monument. The latter claimed that the symbol should Unite the Right. This statement involved the whites-only and fought a...