A Slice of the Confederacy in the Interior of Brazil in: The New York Times, May 9th 2016 (original) (raw)
Related papers
This article in the Journal of Southern History argues the following: (1) that secessionists in the antebellum South wanted Cuba & other Latin American acquisitions after leaving the Union; (2) that the Confederate Constitution encouraged such territorial growth; (3) that Rebel president Jefferson Davis loaded his administration with expansionists; (4) that to avoid fighting a two-front war, Confederate leaders quickly suppressed imperialistic initiatives once the Civil War erupted; (5) that, ironically, Confederates became so desperate for their independence that during the Civil War they even welcomed European intervention in Latin America if that would facilitate winning their war against the Union (even accepting violations of the hallowed Monroe Doctrine if necessary).
The Ethics of Racist Monuments
In this chapter we focus on the debate over publicly-maintained racist monuments as it manifests in the mid-2010s Anglosphere, primarily in the US (chiefly regarding the over 700 monuments devoted to the Confederacy), but to some degree also in Britain and Commonwealth countries, especially South Africa (chiefly regarding monuments devoted to figures and events associated with colonialism and apartheid). After pointing to some representative examples of racist monuments, we discuss ways a monument can be thought racist, and neutrally categorize removalist and preservationist arguments heard in the monument debate. We suggest that both extremist and moderate removalist goals are likely to be self-defeating, and that when concerns of civic sustainability are put on moral par with those of fairness and justice, something like a Mandela-era preservationist policy is best: one which removes the most offensive of the minor racist monuments, but which focuses on closing the monumentary gap between peoples and reframing existing racist monuments.
What Should Become of Confederate Monuments? A Normative Framework
Confederate Monuments, like all public monuments, are a form of state speech. As such, they are prohibited from endorsing, or expressing nostalgia for, racial hierarchy and white supremacy. In many cases, Confederate monuments are reasonably seen as expressing these, and are therefore prohibited forms of state speech. But Confederate monuments are also a very diverse set of objects, varying in terms of their time of construction, their spatial location, their form, and their inscriptions. Some monuments are more objectionable than others because of their characteristics on these dimensions, and our normative assessments must take account of these features.
It has been so difficult to reconcile colonialism and its remnants which are significant heritage products that have transcended into the conservation discourse of a post- colonial Zimbabwe. This paper present some of the main debates circling around the conservation of colonial heritage in Zimbabwe and the contestations that undergird its protection because of the paradigm a shift in the „heritage archive‟. Heritage in Zimbabwe is a highly political process, malleable to the needs of power and often subject to contestations with regards to what should be kept or discarded. Colonial heritage, which occupies the central thesis of this paper has been hatefully vandalised and destroyed without considering that it can be utilised for the purpose of a critical heritage practice. Questions about the experience of colonialism in Zimbabwe can be answered using colonial heritage as a key reference point. In the conventional archive, archivability is „...the product of a judgement, the result of the exercise of a specific power and authority, which involves placing certain documents in an archive at the same time as others are discarded‟ (Mbembe 2002; 2). Similarly, I will argue in this paper that this applies to the „heritage archive‟ in Zimbabwe as well where conservation and protection is selectively offered to liberation war heritage whilst colonial heritage has been marginalised, discarded and left to deteriorate.
The Sons of the Confederate Veterans (SCV) are driven by their pursuit to reform the modern American South on the basis of Neo-Confederate collective memory. Collective memory is a powerful tool: it shapes a group’s identity. With recent controversy calling for the removal of Confederate symbolism throughout the southern United States, the SCV is fighting a rigorous battle not only for the construction of Confederate symbolism (as their forefathers have) but instead, for their defense. Its appeal however is questionable. How can a heritage organization maintain and further advance its legitimacy on the basis of a re-written history? How does the use of collective memory construction allow the SCV to use its construction and appropriation of the “Lost Cause” myth to advance Neo-Confederate ideology into Southern collective memory? Throughout this thesis, three factors are identified which explain the SCV’s success in authenticating its memory narrative to its membership. First, the SCV targets its memberships’ burdened historic conscience through a re-imagined “truth” of Southern history, presenting its cause through a narrative of Southern martyrdom and Northern antagonism. The SCV authenticates its history by providing a tangible past and attributes worth and recognition to its membership’s Confederate heritage. It draws the past into relevance for the present. Second, the SCV constructs and legitimizes its memory narrative by publishing literature with academic approval. With connections to a broader Neo-Confederate intellectual movement, the SCV circulates publications containing “truths” about Southern history. Its readers receive a written confirmation of their memory, standardizing Neo-Confederate ideology further. Third, through a case study of the Confederate Flag illustrates the intensity attributed to the defense of its visual presence in the Southern landscape. The SCV is engaged in a struggle with other social agents to embed its constructed memory into the flag’s narrative to ensure its membership’s bond with the past. In conclusion, by using empathy and sentimentality the SCV standardizes its memory construct for its audience. It maintains its appeal by providing acknowledgment and vindication for a Confederate identity that becomes relevant in the present.
Southeastern Geographer, 2019
This paper recounts struggles over a Confederate monument in Tampa, Florida. Dedicated in 1911 to white supremacy and "undying love" of the Confederate cause, by 2017 the monument hung in the balance of contestations over landscape , power, and city form between anti-racist social justice movements, white nationalist neo-Confederates, and post-racial neoliberal boosters. Drawing on urban political economy, regional history, and discourse analysis, we read the fight over the monument as a flashpoint in ongoing struggles over the racialization of urban space and over regional political realignments. We trace conflicts among the monuments' opponents over whether its removal heralds a closing or opening of struggles for racial justice, and delineate tensions emerging among Southern white nationalists over a position with one foot searching for continued purchase in hegemonic cultures of American nationalism and militarism, and another newly planted among ascendant neoliberal-multicultural paradigms. RESUMEN: Este artículo relata las luchas por un monumento confederado en Tampa, Flor-ida. Dedicado en 1911 a la supremacía blanca y al "amor eterno" de la causa confederada, en el 2017 el monumento se coló en el balance de las disputas sobre el paisaje, el poder y la ciudad entre los movimientos de justicia social antirrac-istas, los nacionalistas blancos neo-confederados y los impulsores neoliberales pos-raciales. Us-ando la economía política urbana, la historia regional y el análisis del discurso, leemos la lucha por el monumento como un punto crítico en las luchas sobre la racialización del espacio urbano y sobre los realineamientos políticos re-gionales. Analizamos las raíces de los conflictos entre los opositores de los monumentos que si su eliminación anuncia un cierre o apertura de las luchas por la justicia racial, y delimitamos las tensiones que surgen entre los nacionalistas blancos del sur sobre una posición con interés en busca de una compra continua en las cul-turas hegemónicas del nacionalismo y el mili-tarismo estadounidense y otro recién plantado entre paradigmas neoliberales-multiculturales ascendentes.