The events in Charlottesville, Va. this week have once again highlighted the difference between tolerance and acceptance. Those who do not want to accept the diversity of America always talk about tolerance.
The African American, immigrant, Latino, Asian, Native American and LGBT communities do not want to be tolerated, we want to be accepted. Accepted for who we are and that our lives are just as important as the majority white community.
The white nationalist and white supremacy communities want the rest of us to be held back and to literally go away. The only people who can truly call America home are the Native Americans. The fact that these deplorable white Americans think that this country is theirs above everyone else’s just highlights their lack of education. Their ancestors immigrated to this country voluntarily, unlike mine who were brought in slave ships.
When white politicians say, “we are taking our country back,” I always think the country you stole? The only group that has claim to America is Native Americans, the rest of us are immigrants or were brought here against our will in shackles. The whole Charlottesville incident was fueled by the impending removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who fought to save slavery in the U.S. It is time that people accept American minorities are tired of dealing with symbols of our oppression in public spaces that we pay for with our tax dollars. It was OK for Arizona to refuse to honor Martin Luther King with a holiday until the state started to lose critical tourist and convention revenue. Magically, Arizona state leaders decided it was in their best interest to accept the MLK holiday. Yet, MLK fought for freedom not oppression.
To be honest, Native Americans could say all statues of American presidents offend them. After all, it all started with Europeans taking their land. That’s the history that needs to be preserved, not Robert E. Lee fighting for slavery. Many of the statues honoring Confederate men were erected in the 1950s to counter the burgeoning civil rights movement. A symbol of control over the oppressed African American people. Can you believe the federal government even honored Robert E. Lee with a postage stamp?
I’m happy to say that San Diego leaders are taking swift action to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces. Wednesday, KPBS reported that a plaque remembering Jefferson Davis Highway, named after the president of the Confederacy, was removed from a sidewalk in Horton Plaza. Below is a screen capture of a November 2016 issue of a newsletter by the United Daughters of the Confederacy California Division detailing the history of the monument.
In the end, minorities will not tolerate these monuments to people who were our oppressors. They can go in a museum, but they should not be in the public square preserved by tax dollars. That’s what everyone needs to accept.
STAMPP CORBIN
PUBLISHER
San Diego LGBT Weekly
Just wondering where this stops.
Martin Luther King Jr. Was apposed to gay marriage.
Is he next?
Liz W.
Was he a traitor to the United States? You are being silly.
No he wasn’t a traitor and I am dead serious, one other thing about MLK he didn’t support gay rights it was against his religious beliefs.
I am surprised you don’t recognize the stupidity in removing those monuments, they do provide a historical marker to our mistakes as a country. Taking them down simply is group denial of our past and that clouds the path from there to here; where I would like to think we are more enlightened.
Sooner or later the uneducated crowds will demand the Constitution be scrapped for the single reason of the mention that Negros and Indians are 3/5 of a man. When we reach that point your rights, along with my rights will be no more. Is this what you really want Stanpp?
You people are so manipulated by George Soros and his band of thugs.
Lets pray we don’t up on opposite sides of the same civil war.
Liz W.