Larry Wilmore on Confederate symbols. . .

[DinahMoeHum]

. . .and the airbrushing of history. . .

https://www.theringer.com/2017/8/16/16159634/larry-wilmore-charlottesville-confederate-symbols

(snip)
“Confederate statues and Confederate imagery, these are not symbols and images to remind Southern whites of their vaulted history or that type of thing. These are images to remind black people that they are n*****s. OK? That’s what it was put there for. ‘Black people, you are n*****s, and this is the symbol to remind you of that.’”

“Most of this shit started in the 1920s when the Klan was at their peak. That’s when most of these statues were put in place. And a black person living in this area knows that that’s what those symbols are there to remind them of — their place. Their place in society. ‘These symbols are to remind us that we are above you, and you are a n****r.’ That’s what those symbols are. That’s what they represent, and that’s why they need to get away.”

“Can you imagine, if you’re a Jew living in Germany, and there’s all these images of the Nazi past that you’re just supposed to accept as somebody celebrating their culture? ‘So how do I get to the store?’ ‘Just go down Goebbels Lane and it’s right by Mengele Parkway. Just go down there and it’s next to the Hitler Auditorium. You know where that is, right?’ Could you imagine having to live with that shit every day just thrown in your fucking face? That’s what Confederate symbolism is for blacks living in the South. That’s what it feels like, you have to understand that.”
(snip)

A podcast featuring this conversation is here:
https://art19.com/shows/larry-wilmore/episodes/1bc73c5b-0300-43e1-9ba3-84146206c82f

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[madaboutharry]

2. Exactly.

[BigmanPigman]

3. He should still be on Comedy Central. He is smart and talented.

[DinahMoeHum]

4. Yeah, I miss him there, too.

n/t

[shanen]

7. Comedy Central is killing itself

The people running Comedy Central are greedy and stupid and have no sense of humor. They are working as hard as they can to kill it, and I expect they'll succeed within the year.

[Ken Burch]

12. Indeed. I STILL can't believe they cancelled @Midnight, or that they sabotaged it first

by switching its time slot to 11:30(uh, Comedy Central-did you forget the show's NAME?).

Chris Hardwick was gracious as hell in his response to that, btw.

And I'd say that whoever decided not to offer Samantha Bee a solo show on CC should be staked to an anthill-but that would be cruelty to ants.

[spooky3]

16. I believe that Bee was offered The Daily Show but she

declined. She may not have wanted to do nightly shows.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Bingo

And that's exactly why 99% of the whites today fighting to keep them want to keep them. They are absolutely racist symbols meant to ridicule, bait, and intimidate blacks.

[DownriverDem]

38. Then

I'm in the 1% of whites that hate those racist Confederate symbols. I am ashamed of my county and those racist repubs.

[KT2000]

6. Give him his show back

we need his voice NOW!

[moondust]

9. +1000000

[Ken Burch]

19. [phone]!

n/t.

[progressoid]

21. Yes please!

[northoftheborder]

8. K&R

Well stated!

[Roy Rolling]

10. Here's the danger, defined

Those who want to "celebrate history" are the very miscreants who are making people of color the promise "it will never happen again".

Some promise. It's like an alcoholic keeping a bottle on display to remind them their drinking will "never happen again". Racists are powerless, they seek power. They will become drunk on power if it is given to them.

[FakeNoose]

39. Wow I never thought of it that way

I think you're right about this.

Thanks friend!

[Grammy23]

11. He just staight out says the truth. No sugar coating things.

But he always manages to put his own humorous spin on it without killing the message. He makes you see things in a different way and we need his voice out there for us now. Sorry Comedy Central didn't see it that way.

[Beartracks]

25. Wait, what? Where is Larry Wilmore now?

[flibbitygiblets]

28. Comedy Central got it wrong when they cancelled his show. It was brilliant.

And it provided a very much needed perspective. I guess it was just too much, having two black hosts back to back?

[Yavin4]

13. This explains that the Civil War was not about slavery. It was all about White Supremacy.

The rank and file Southern White men fought that war to protect the dominion of the White race over all other races in the world. The idea that the US government were going to declare African Americans equal to White people is what drove them to war, not the institution of slavery itself.

[FakeNoose]

40. Good points

Most of the southern whites were not wealthy, and didn't own property or slaves. However they did fight on the Confederate side, so why did they believe in the Confederacy?

I think you've made a good point here, it was (and still is) about white supremacy. At least a few of them still believe in it, and Trump figured out how to get them to vote for him. Maybe it was Bannon who made the connection but now it's all Trump. He has to go with this now because they're the only ones who still want him in the White House.

When you think about it, Trump grew up in a wealthy family in New York City, what does he care about the problems in the South? They don't mean shit to him. They don't even stay at his hotels or play golf at his resorts. Once the Southern voters wake up to how they're being used by Trump, it will be all over.

[brush]

43. No. It was the institution of slavery. It's stated in all the southern states' secession articles

Last edited Wed Aug 23, 2017, 07:47 PM - Edit history (1)

Let's not re-write history. The racists southerners have done enough of that already.

And a little-known fact: The wealthy plantation owners, just 1.6% of the south's population are the ones who drove for war. They then got the rest of the population through patriotic persuasion and, I grant you, the white supremacy argument, as well as a draft to fight the "War of Northern Aggression", as they called it, even though they themselves started the war at Ft. Sumter.

But please, make no mistake, the war was fought to maintain their right to own other human beings and work them for free labor — slavery.

[Yavin4]

44. Then why aren't they protesting to bring back slavery?

Even the most racist KKK and Nazis don't want to bring back slavery. The non-slave holding Whites were fighting to maintaintheir racial superiority. They did not benefit in any way from slavery.

[brush]

45. Believe that if you want but it's seems an attempt to re-write history...

Last edited Thu Aug 24, 2017, 10:25 AM - Edit history (2)

as was the mendacious "states rights" argument for the war pushed by many of the southern losers.

The war was fought by the south to maintain slavery.

Of course white supremacy was used as a justification for keeping Africans enslaved, and it was believed by them, but without the unpaid labor of enslaved Africans the economy of the South would've collapsed, and the slave owners knew it.

Research those states articles of secession. The reason for the secession, maintaining slavery, is written in all of them.

Here's a quote for you:

Here’s Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, arguing that its “cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first in the history of the world based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Nobody talks that way anymore except guys with Swastikas. It’s no exaggeration to say that the virulent racism they preach was invented precisely to rationalize the evil of slavery. Nevertheless, that’s what the Civil War, the bloodiest tragedy in American history, was all about. Protecting and defending chattel slavery, a grotesque remnant of human history. There’s nothing to be gained by pretending otherwise.

[Yavin4]

46. I'm not re-writing history. White supremacy was the real reason why poor Southern Whites fought, and

why they still cling to the image and ideology of their cause, White supremacy. They're not protesting to bring back slavery. Yes, maintaining the slave based economy was the explicit political and economic reason, but what they were fighting for was to deny acknowledgement that African Americans were equal to Whites.

[brush]

47. "Yes, maintaining the slave based economy was the explicit political and economic reason

By George you've got it.

[mobeau69]

14. Same as those stuipd rebel flags and liscense plates.

The trumpklans running around with them on their trucks are nothing but racist statements. I'm betting a large majority of them couldn't even pass a HS history test on the subject.

[Juliusseizure]

15. Jews understand it/southern whites don't

Because they've always been the hierarchy and are insensitive assholes.

[misanthrope]

32. Yup.

Seen it all my life.

[krakfiend]

17. Wow powerful words.

Never thought of it like that. How true it is

[Nitram]

18. Yes.

[BlueJac]

20. Good words from a good man......

just tell it like it is, thanks Larry!

[SunSeeker]

22. Exactly.

Larry Wilmore is brilliant.

[eppur_se_muova]

23. Leave it to a comic to explain what all the editorials can't.

No sugar coating, just the bald truth.

[Beartracks]

24. Bravo, Larry. n/t

[Hekate]

26. Three cheers for Larry Wilmore. He's saying it so much more powerfully than I have been...

Partly because he can use the N-word in context, and I can't and won't. Thank you, Larry W.

[VOX]

27. Nails it.

Miss this guy on Comedy Central.

[DLevine]

29. Powerful. K&R. nt

[malaise]

30. This is brilliant

Rec

[Rhiannon12866]

31. Wow! I really miss Larry Wilmore!

He's always right on the mark!

[58Sunliner]

33. I was born on the west coast, did not grow up with these monuments.

The first time I saw them, besides a history book, was in the capital of Richmond, VA., and I was stunned that people lived with these remnants of racism and cruelty in their midst. Good for Larry. But I know some these were put in place at the turn of the century.

[dalton99a]

34. Excellent

[SCVDem]

35. And I haven't forgotten about you

Bill Cosby!

[saidsimplesimon]

36. Thank you Dinah

Larry Wilmore, his entire cast and crew were my only reason for watching any shows on CC. "Things be cray."

[zentrum]

37. Fantastic. Exactly.

They are designed to oppress and undermine and crush Black people.

Because what they are saying when they say "heritage" is: Our great heritage as slavers, bigots, murderers, rapists and traitors to the Union.

[Stonepounder]

41. The Jews in Germany with images of Nazi past is extremely powerful analogy.

Sometimes, I swear, the white folks don't even realize what they are doing. When we retired we bought a place in 'Colonial Manor'. Sounds nice, doesn't it. It really is a nice place. Good neighbors, its been around long enough that the trees are all grown and provide shade in the Summer, there are only two exits and they both exit onto the same through street, and almost all of the streets in it are cul-de-sacs, so very little through traffic.

But, here's the part that kinda makes you blink. All of the streets in 'Colonial Manor' are named after Confederate generals, or Confederate battlefields. Go figure. I suspect most of the residents don't even realize the cognitive dissonance of it, and the advantages to living here manage to outweigh the conflation of the Revolution with the Civil, but it is something that I reflect on several times a week as I turn into 'Colonial Manor' onto Appomattox Dr. (Seriously, why would someone naming streets in memory of the Confederacy name a street 'Appomattox'?)

[tblue37]

42. K&R for visibility. nt