Protesting the Confederacy on Campus
For fifty years, Middle Tennessee State University’s black students have protested the pervasiveness of the Confederacy on their campus. This is their story, from the past to the present.
The Future is Another Country
For fifty years, Middle Tennessee State University’s black students have protested the pervasiveness of the Confederacy on their campus. This is their story, from the past to the present.
White Americans have appropriated and closely guard what used to be a typically southern variant of U.S. history to protect their privilege. The current political climate in the United States seems to be congenial to these kinds of defense.
It might seem that memory and heritage have lost their power to excite political action and are no longer the medium through which white supremacy is asserted. Yet Lost Cause mythology has never gone away and maintains its firm grip on the thoughts and emotions of many white Americans.
“Confederate Pepe” appeals to a demographically diverse, less digitally organized right movement, yet manages ultimately to “unite the right” through its easy, overreaching racist symbolism.
The removal of monuments in New Orleans has captured national attention, with reports of tempers flaring and tensions rising among protestors and counter-protestors in one of the country’s most historically and culturally significant cities.