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Confederate Statues

On Contact: Public Monuments And Racism

n the show this week, Chris Hedges, in his second interview with Professor James W Loewen, discusses public monuments and statues, who puts them up and why, and what may replace them. Prof Loewen is the author of ‘Lies Across America: What Our Historical Markers and Monuments Get Wrong’. "The uprisings sweeping the nation triggered by the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others have not only confronted systematic police abuse, but targeted statues, monuments and buildings commemorating white supremacy.

Is Burning Prisons The New Knocking Down Confederate Statues?

Saturday afternoon in Seattle, Washington, a construction site where a youth detention center was being built burned to the ground.  The King County juvenile detention facility is assumed to have been set ablaze by some of the thousands of Seattle demonstrators who marched in protest to both the federal government terrorizing it’s neighboring city of Portland, Oregon, as well as policemen murdering innocent and unarmed Black Americans.  The timing of the fire set to the youth prison feels deeply symbolic, especially in light of a Michigan court case where a Black teenage girl is currently serving time inside of a juvenile detention center after failing to finish her homework.

Churchill, Columbus And Leopold All Fall Down

The perpetrators of crimes against humanity are often elevated to positions of respect and admiration. It all depends on who did the killing, and who was killed. Now the murderers are being called to account. The new movement in the United States against police and other state violence has inspired this welcome change taking place all over the world. The criminals are being exposed decades and even centuries after their atrocities took place. There is no statute of limitations for murder nor should there be for calling out people who have the blood of millions on their hands. The hand wringing over monument removal is not just connected to reverence for these individuals. While millions of people want change, millions more do not and they hold on to Columbus or Leopold or Churchill or Robert E. Lee because their identity and place in society are firmly tied to white supremacy. If a Columbus statue comes down so might a small portion of white entitlement and its privileges. The monuments to genocide must come down.

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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