Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Racist Fucks

Unreal.
Starting this month, South Carolina will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War with a series of events that underscore this state’s central role in that titanic, tragic struggle.
. . .
Two of the first events scheduled to mark the anniversary – a privately sponsored secession ball Monday in Charleston and an effort to display the original Ordinance of Secession – show just how divisive the Civil War remains.

The ball, organized by the Confederate Heritage Trust and sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, has been criticized as a celebration of treason and slavery.

“There does appear to be an effort to make this a festive occasion,” said Lonnie Randolph, president of the NAACP’s S.C. Conference, which plans to protest the ball. “It’s more about celebration than history.”

At a subsequent press conference, Randolph was even more critical, saying, "We are not opposed to observances. We are opposed to disrespect. This is nothing more than a celebration of slavery."

The gala’s website says the president of the S.C. Senate, avid Civil War re-enactor Glenn McConnell, plans to attend.

Mark Simpson, the S.C. division commander for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said his organization condemns slavery and respects the NAACP’s right to protest.

“We could look back and say (the Civil War) wasn’t something to celebrate – about 620,000 died in the North and South,” Simpson said. “If you count civilians, you’re up to about a million killed in that war.


“Do we celebrate that? Heavens no,” he said. “War and death is never something to celebrate. But we do celebrate the courage and the integrity of 170 men who signed their signatures to the Article of Secession – the courage of men to do what they think is right.”
Do we celebrate the death and destruction caused by the civil war? Of course not.

We celebrate the courage it took to commit treason for the noble goal of preserving an economic order where white people could get rich from the free labor of black people they were allowed to own. What possible problems could anyone have with that?

Oh yeah, and and I love the article mentioning how "divisive the civil war remains". Really? Among those of us in the brain-having community, it's not divisive, it's pretty fucking clear what fighting for the confederacy meant, and it's not something that anyone should be proud of.

Over at Balloon Juice, there was a response that we know somewhere in China, JN would be proud of:

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