TO THE EDITOR:
Silent Sam is an expression of racism so real, so undeniable, that I can literally reach out and touch it.
The evidence of the anti-blackness inherent in the history of the symbol of the Confederate flag and statues like Silent Sam, as well as in the reasons for which the South seceded, is undeniable.
Any defense of the use of Confederate symbols that does not look to address this association is intellectually dishonest and morally untenable to me.
The statue is a symbol, as is the act of desecrating it. Symbols are given power by people, and when they choose to ignore some of the meanings and associations attached to a given symbol when it is perceived by other people, they give the implied statement that one or more conveniently-selected portions of that symbol’s history are more relevant than the other elements.
Worse yet, indications that pro-Confederates have not examined all of the history and given attention only to what suits their interests (aka feelings), is tacit abrogation of the rest of the symbol’s meaning as a contested site of cultural identity.
Ironically then, the push to oppose the “erasure” of Southern history is motivated by a meandering logic that itself lacks the historical perspective it so broadly claims us students to be lacking.
The University makes a mockery of itself with its pretensions to liberalism and progressiveness while it actively allows a disquieting racism to persist on its campus in the year 2015.
