Dikonfigurasi – so, by analogy with the well-known post-Soviet space and de-communization began to call the process that began in the United States in 2015, but increased this summer after clashes in Charlottesville.
Dikonfigurasi is the demolition of monuments dedicated to the Confederacy (the States that participated in the Civil war 1861-1865 on the side of the South), as well as the renaming of streets named after generals and politicians of the southerners. But about all under the order.
How do the U.S. monuments to the Confederacy?
According to Slate, if you count all the monuments, plaques, street or school named in honor of conferederation, the number will be huge – more than 13000. Specifically, monuments – 700, not only in the southern States, and, for example, in Massachusetts, DC, or Maryland.
In the first five States in the number of Confederate monuments included Virginia (96), North Carolina (90), GA (90), Texas (66) and South Carolina (50).
#Virginia issues 3 month temporary ban of #protests at #RobertELee #ConfederateStatue in #RichmondVA https://t.co/avrmEvl4iJ #Confederacy pic.twitter.com/uLjMd9VBZf
— Penny Mens (@TerenceSpeaks) August 21, 2017
Why it happened, because the South lost the war?
Such a number of monuments – the great merit of several public organizations and movements, for example, «Daughters of the Confederacy» (United Daughters of the Confederacy) and «Sons Confederate veterans» (Sons of Confederate Veterans) as well as «Lost Cause».
The statement said Daughters Confederancy is an organization designed to honor the memory of ancestors, the confederates, to protect and preserve memorial sites, collect materials of true history of the war.
These organizations are trying to change the opinion of the southerners, how about fighting for slavery, trying to prove that the war erupted over the issue of self-government of the States. Largely due to their efforts in America and with such a number of monuments to confederates.
If they stood still all this time, what happened?
In June 2015, the 21-year-old Dylan Ruth came to the African methodical Episcopal Church of Emmanuel (Charleston). After spending about an hour in Church listening to the sermon, he stood up and said: «I have to do this. You raped our women and want to take over our country. You should get rid of» and then opened fire on the audience, and then disappeared.
It killed eight people, another victim died in hospital. After the arrest of the RUF investigators found his website where the Manifesto of the racist content, and the RUF posed for a photo with the Confederate flag.
Mass murderer Dylan Roof was all the modern confederate anyone will ever need to see on their TV #NoConfederate pic.twitter.com/WomPph39Pl
— LiNCOLN PARK??? (@linc0lnpark) July 31, 2017
It was a kind of trigger. After a few days on the streets of Charleston came a crowd of thousands, demanding to remove the Confederate flag from the building of the legislative Assembly. In the Senate of South Carolina voted «for», and the flag was removed. This was only the beginning.
From August 2015 to events in Charlottesville monuments to confederates removed in Austin (TX), Boone County (mo), Louisville (ky), St. Louis (mo), Orlando (FL), Rockville (MD), New Orleans (Louisiana) – four of the monument, two years after the Governor called to do it.
What happened in Charlottesville?
USA deserves a civil war. #charlottesville pic.twitter.com/IhmlIl5tii
— freemλn? (@drgordonbeg) August 12, 2017
There’s 12 of August of this year, the city Council had to make a decision about the dismantling of the statue to the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. To rally against this decision of going ultra-right organizations, including neo-Nazis and the ku Klux Klan. In turn, after that took to the streets opponents of white supremacists and neo-Nazis. The unrest, clashes, one of the neo-Nazis drove into the crowd on the car, resulting in killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer, another 19 people were injured.
It marked a new round of demolition of monuments to confederates.
Neo-Nazis and the ku Klux Klan? They are not banned in America?
First, a little history. Ku Klux Klan originated during the Civil war, but later disappeared and was revived in the early twentieth century as the Protestant movement. He still acted against African Americans, but not only — but also against Catholics and Jews. The second Clan came to naught in the thirties of the last century.
Ku Klux Klan»s profile in Palm Beach County shrank through yearshttps://t.co/7dUVYsBfg4 pic.twitter.com/yJecIFeOIT
— The Palm Beach Post (@pbpost) December 19, 2017
The third Clan was formed during the civil rights movement of the 1950-60-ies. Unhappy with attempts to stop racial segregation, some again wore the famous white hoods and began attacks on opponents of segregation. After the adoption in 1964 of the civil rights act and the 1965 law on the right to vote, the support of the Clan gradually declined, and he eventually broke up into many underground racist organization. Many of these groups borrowed ideas from the Nazis. One of the «guru» of white supremacism was Wesley swift, a former Methodist, who founded a Church that preached the gospel of white supremacy. In addition, swift was an anti-Semite.
Now the white supremacism in America is dozens of groups with similar ideology. Among them are neo-Nazis and white nationalists, who are calling for the creation of ethnically pure white States, as well as neoconfederatewho want the same, but with «features of pre-war nostalgia». Ku Klux Klan still exists with small groups throughout the country.
#DossierInternacional Ku Klux Klan, grupo que se adapta a los tiempos; promueven la supremacía blanca y el racismo https://t.co/ngQnDYnvFZ pic.twitter.com/T4VmzEWLd3
— El Universal Mundo (@Univ_Mundo) August 20, 2017
So why the KKK and Nazi symbols such as, for example, the swastika is not banned in the US? The answer is simple — the famous first amendment. We will remind, the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the freedom of speech, and shared offensive remarks about blacks, Jews — anyone. According to the law to prosecute can for threats against a specific person.
Same thing with the swastika, as the symbol of Nazism is banned in Germany. So, for example, recently, the wide resonance was received by history, when the Manager of a condominium in Queens, new York, decorated the hall with posters of Hitler and swastika. By law he is entitled to do, but many residents protested, the matter went to city Council, and it is unknown whether the change something, or a portrait of the Nazi leader will remain in the multinational house.
What say historians and politicians?
«This week we’re tearing down the monuments to Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. And who’s next? George Washington? You need to ask yourself when you need to stop,» President Donald trump.
«New York will save you from the symbols of hatred. We will assemble a special Commission that will consider the controversial monuments of the city,» the mayor of new York bill de Blasio.
«It’s not just an innocent reminder. Monuments to people who ignored the terror and enslavement. Perhaps these people were warriors, but they were not patriots», -, New Orleans mayor Mitch Landry.
«I think it’s safe to say that complete deliverance from «bad» sites can be counterproductive and contribute to a collective amnesia, but I’m pretty sure: you can not compare Robert E. Lee and George Washington.
Washington has spent 25 years of his life to the establishment of the Republic, which before this story did not know Whether the same took up arms, led a revolt that killed more than 600 thousand Americans. The fact that Robert E. Lee was not hanged as a traitor, it is the favor of the government of the United States» — Amy S. Greenberg Professor of American history at the University of Pennsylvania.
«The South is not one state in the South too — many opinions, this is a complex region. As the events in Charlottesville, modern southerners are also contradictory are the monuments of the Confederacy, and they need to be considered.
So I urge my fellow Americans across the country to read more historical books, to travel beyond favorite beaches and to expand their understanding of what makes the South the South,» Karen Cox, a history Professor at the University of North Carolina.
«Pametnika»:
In a surprise move overnight, @UTAustin removed multiple Confederate statues on campus. https://t.co/yhU2clYm6X pic.twitter.com/dKl1qwdcPY
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) On August 21, 2017
Here is a list of the Confederate monuments that have been demolished after the events in Charlottesville:
- August 14 — Gainesville, FL — statue of a soldier of the Confederacy moved to a private cemetery about 10 miles from city
- August 15 — St. Petersburg, Florida removed a plaque in honour of the highway of Stonewall Jackson
- August 15 — Durham, NC — the mob demolished the monument to soldiers-Confederate «Boys in gray».
- August 16 — Brooklyn, NY — dismantled two boards in honor of Robert E. Lee
- August 16 — Los Angeles, California — carried a 6-foot monument to the Confederate soldiers from the graveyard of Hollywood
- August 16 — San Diego, CA — dismantled the plaque, presented by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1926
- August 16 — Baltimore, MD — dismantled four statues
- August 17 — Franklin, Ohio — Robert E. Lee monument was removed at night. Authorities reported that he was standing near the highway, and it was a «threat to public safety».
- August 17 — Frederick, MD — removed a bust of former Supreme court judge Roger Taney
- August 17 — Madison, Wi — memorial plaque in honor of Confederate soldiers as «unsung heroes» has been removed from city cemetery the day after complaints from residents
- August 18 — Annapolis, MD — night, removed the statue of former chief justice Roger Taney, which will now be in the archives of the state.
- August 18 — Helena, Montana — the northernmost Confederate monument in the country was demolished after the city hall sent a letter to representatives of indigenous Americans
- August 18 — Daytona Beach, FL — three plaques removed from the Park. Officials said that they give the local historical society.
- August 18 — the Bronx, NY — busts of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson removed from the hall of fame of great Americans at the Bronx community College.
- August 19 — statue of Robert E. Lee in front of the chapel Duke University dismantled a few days after vandals damaged the nose and broke away part of the face.
- August 19 — Worthington, Ohio — thirteen years after it was installed, dismantled Board in honor of the birth here of a former Confederate General Roswell Ripley.
- August 21, Ellicott City, MD — city workers removed a plaque from the territory of the district court. On the Board were listed the names of 92 Confederate soldiers
- August 21 — Austin, TX, four statues of the leaders of the Confederation dismantled from the Texas state University campus after the President of the University Greg Fenves called them «symbols of the modern white domination and neo-Nazism».
- August 22 — West Palm Beach, Florida — ten-foot-tall statue of Confederate soldiers was removed after it was painted by vandals. According to city officials, the monument will now be stored in a «safe place».
