Confederate controversy cascades Caucasian college life in the most recent scandal at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The person on everyone’s mind: Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general from the civil war. A statue erected in a memorial of the general has been covered, berated, and chanted at due to several students protesting for the stone man to be taken down.

Counter protestors arrived; white nationalists in rhythm shouted slurs and waved tiki torches. America is in peril, confronted by this conundrum: what do we do with our Confederate statues?

Part of the problem is the origin of the statues, and the name sakes of these war “heroes” being used without a person’s say. To attend Robert E. Lee high school as a minority or walk to a courthouse, the epicenter of justice, and see Jefferson Davis in the core of your city can be disheartening. The very people who placed these statues could have been racists who “wanted the south back,” and didn’t represent everyone’s interests.

In George Orwell’s “1984” he warns, “The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.” While removing a mean memento from the tall hall is logical, destroying all evidence of the past can only lead to repetition of tragic mistakes.

Instead, maybe surround or update these statues with plaques and a new memorial, add more accepting and diverse statues or art around the area and relocate controversially monuments to a museum or less esteemed building.

Despite any destruction, disembodiment, or disowning of the statues, a core problem underlies the scenario: what does this change? Acceptance and safety in a school or public building is necessary, but it is ignoring the real issues. How does taking down a statue, a stone sentinel, decrease high school dropout rates for young black males?

What about the injustice seen within a court system for African Americans? The lack of opportunities a minority faces in corporate America?

I suggest we change focus. We’ve caught America’s attention; now hold this umbrella of discrimination and embrace the story. The cat is out of the bag, and we need our country to understand these real issues and how to erase them. It’s only a matter of time before we see major reform, so why not now? Why not the year the statues fell? And the people rose? Fight for the freedom that you deserve, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

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