Confederate Statue Removals Controversy

Overview

Confederate Statue Removals Controversy refers to the debate surrounding the removal of statues honoring the Confederate States of America, the group of states which seceded from the United States of America in the 1860s, leading to the American Civil War. After the violence that resulted from the 2017 Unite the Rally, an event originally started as a protest of the removal of a statue of confederate general Robert E. Lee, a debate raged in cities across the United States as well as online of what Confederate statues represented. Many statues were removed by cities and one was notably removed by a group of protestors. Comments from President Donald Trump and conservative activists sparked memes regarding the debate on whether Confederate Statues were pieces of history or symbols of white nationalism.

Background

The 2017 Unite the Right Rally, held in Charlottesville, Virginia the evening of August 11th, 2017 and into August 12th, began as a protest of the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The protest turned violent as the protestors and leftist counter-protestors represented by groups such as Antifa and Democratic Socialists of America clashed, notably resulting in the death of leftist counter-protestor Heather Heyer after a driver drove a car into a mass of counter-protestors.

Developments

Trump Comments

In the span of three days, President Trump first condemned the violence "on both sides." He then said the following day, “Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.” The following day, Trump doubled down on his first comments stressing the so-called alt-left was just as much to blame for the violence in Charlottesville as the white supremacists.

Durham Statue Toppling

On August 14th, 2017, two days after the 2017 Unite the Right Rally, leftist protestors in Durham, North Carolina tore down a statue outside of the old Durham County Courthouse honoring "the boys who wore the gray," referring to the uniform of the confederate army. The statue had stood since 1924, 60 years after the Civil War, and was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The statue fell to the ground and crumpled (video shown below).

While some online echoed the appall of some conservatives, the majority of popular online reactions celebrated the protestors. Several popular tweets used the image of the crumpled statue as a reaction image, while others parodied conservative responses to the event by posting different statues, defending them as "conservative monuments" (examples shown below). These jokes were covered by The Fader.

Other Confederate Statue Removals

Following the Rally, dozens more Confederate statues were removed across the United States. As of August 18th, 2017, statues in Baltimore, Brooklyn, Gainesville, and New Orleans have been removed, and proposals to remove statues in several other cities exist.^[1]

Online Reactions

Before the Liberals Find a Reason to Deface This Statue

On August 14th, 2017, actor James Woods tweeted a picture of the United States Marine Corps War Memorial, also known as the "Iwo Jima Memorial," with the caption "Before the #liberals find a reason to deface, destroy or degrade this one, I thought some of you might like to see it one more time…" (shown below). The tweet gained over 13,000 retweets and 28,000 likes.

Several hours after Woods' tweet, dozens of Twitter users began to parody it by posting pictures of humorous and less iconic statues using his caption. One of the first notable examples was posted by @leftisbestwing, who used an image of a statue of the Jolly Green Giant, gaining over 150 retweets and 950 likes (shown below, left). One of the most popular examples was tweeted by @spookperson, who used the caption with an image of an inflatable buttplug, gaining over 820 retweets and 3,700 likes (shown below, right).

Trump "Beautiful Statues" Tweet

On August 17th, 2017, Trump delivered a series of tweets claiming that the statues represented America's history, and that while one can't change history, they can learn from it (shown below).

Trump's tweets inspired a series of jokes similar to "Before The Liberals Find a Reason to Deface This Statue," in which people posted pictures of humorous statues claiming they were a beautiful part of the nation's history. These jokes were covered by Twitter Moments^[2] and August 18th.

History: Statue Equivocation

Another debate surrounding the removal of the statues centered on the position that removing the statues was tantamount to forgetting history. This position was met with doubt from left-leaning skeptics, who noted that statues were hardly the only thing that preserved history. A series of tweets by @LibShipwreck pointed out the fallacy, which were also covered by Twitter Moments^[3] on the 18th.

Search Interest

External References