My old friend-- let's call him "Mordecai X"-- a Floridian Trump parrot, says he's not a racist because:1- he has a black cousin he likes and2- he donated $70 (it was supposed to be $35 but he couldn't navigate ActBlue efficiently) to Mondaire Jones, who is black and gay.Yesterday he shared this: "My grandmother was very very progressive artist socialite and actually gave way more love to her black grandchildren then to us white ones. I think she thought they needed it more." see? Not a racist bone in his body.Like Señor Trumpanzee, X freaks out daily when he reads about a statue being defaced, let alone torn down. It offends him no end and considers it left-wing censorship and insists "they're" banning books and plays as well, something I assume he gets from Reddit or 4chan, which is where he gets his news.But X, who is Jewish, is also a rabid Zionist and Judeo-nationalist. I don't want to further stoke his statue-mania with another discussion of the topic but I nearly sent him the Aiden Pink story in The Forward yesterday: 8 American Monuments Celebrating Anti-Semites. I wonder if X would take part in tearing them down-- or perhaps just approve if it were to happen. "In the weeks since protests against racism began after the killing of George Floyd," wrote Pink, "activists around the world have been toppling statues, either by pressuring public officials or by tearing the monuments down themselves. Activists have naturally focused on memorials to Confederate leaders or others who enacted racist policies, and associate monuments to anti-Semites with Europe, where they are common."We don't have to look to the cheesy statue of King Edward I in Burgh-le-Marsh, England, standing in memory (since 2007, when it was erected) of the 700th anniversary of his death. Edward, if you're not up on your history of notorious anti-Semites, issued the 1290 Edict of Expulsion, expelling Jews from England. But here in the U.S. we also have memorials to rabid anti-Semites.General George Patton's diaries, posthumously published in 1996, "reveal," wrote Pink, "that his opinion of the Jewish prisoners he encountered was scarcely different than the Nazis he had just defeated. He described the Jewish displaced persons as 'locusts,' 'lower than animals,' 'lost to all decency,' and 'a subhuman species without any of the cultural or social refinements of our times.' A monument to Patton was unveiled at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. in 1950, and then rededicated in 2009-- 13 years after his diary was published."Who knew? But one we all did know about was Nazi-sympathizer Henry Ford... who did more than write in his secret diary. He was the owner and publisher of the Nazi propaganda newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, which were distributed in Ford auto dealerships nationwide. "The Independent," Pink reminds us, "frequently published screeds and conspiracy theories against Jews, including several under Ford’s own name, as well as copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious anti-Semitic forgery. Ford was also frequently praised by Nazi leadership, which gave him a medal in 1938. Today, a statue of Ford is present at the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, Mich. Another statue of him is found on the property of The Henry Ford, a history and science museum he founded."You didn't have to watch The Plot Against America to know that Charles Lindbergh was a Jew-hating Nazi stooge. He was, after all the spokesperson for the MAGA-organization of his day, the America First Committee. "Lindbergh publicly claimed Jews were pushing the United States needlessly into World War II," wrote Pink. "He also was a close friend of Henry Ford, who said in 1940, 'When Charles comes out here, we only talk about the Jews.' Today, a statue of Lindbergh, depicting him both as a child and an adult, is found on the lawn of the state capitol complex in St. Paul, Minn., his home state. A bust of his face also graces the Lindbergh Terminal of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport."Going back a little further, there is Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of New Amsterdam before it was taken over by the British and renamed New York. Pink reminded his readers that "Stuyvesant initially refused to allow Jews to settle permanently in New Amsterdam, and while he later changed his mind, he made them pay a special tax. He also referred to Jews as 'the deceitful race, such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ.' Today, several New York City locations are named after him, including the Bed-Stuy neighborhood and Stuyvesant High School. Statues of him can be found at Stuyvesant Square in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Bergen Square in Jersey City, N.J. An Israeli legal advocacy group in 2017 called on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to remove the Stuyvesant Square statue, saying that the former governor was an 'extreme racist.'"And what about Jew-hating fanatic Martin Luther whose virulent and deranged anti-Semitism influenced Europe for centuries. And although "the official Protestant organizations of Germany and Norway officially condemned Luther’s anti-Semitism in 2015, owing to his historical and theological significance, statues of Luther are still present at Protestant universities and seminaries across the United States. But there is one monument to him sitting on public lands: an 18-foot-tall statue in Baltimore administered by the city’s department of parks and recreation. The statue was erected in 1936 and had a rededication ceremony in 2011."Last week, when his statue was pulled down in San Francisco, many of us learned that President Ulysses S. Grant, hero of the Civil War, once owned a slave. But did you know that as a conquering hero he expelled all Jews from Tennessee? The largest equestrian monument in the United States is a memorial to Grant in the nation's capital and isn't his visage on the $50 bill a monument to his memory we're all carrying around in our pockets from time to time?And then there's notorious Kansas Jew-hater, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Actually, populist and suffragette Mary Elizabeth Lease-- upon who Dorothy was based-- has a statue standing in Wichita. While campaigning for women's and farmers' rights she was a crusader against the banksters, but "often veered into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories," wrote Pink. "People who were forced to take out bank loans were 'paying tribute to the Rothschilds of England, who are but the agent of the Jews,' claimed Lease."A statue of former Georgia Senator Thomas Watson used to stand on the steps of the Georgia state capitol until it was moved to the park across the street in 2013. "Watson," wrote Pink, "was a Georgia congressman and newspaper publisher who served as a vice-presidential nominee for William Jennings Bryan’s Populist Party in 1896. During the 1913 trial of Leo Frank, a Jewish man falsely accused of murdering a 13-year-old Christian girl, Watson’s paper whipped up anti-Semitic sentiment. After Frank was convicted and his sentence was commuted, Watson advocated for Frank to be lynched, which he eventually was. Watson was elected to the Senate in 1922 but died in office a year later. In addition to his anti-Semitism, Watson was also a white supremacist and anti-Catholic."Just sayin'. But GovExec.com also noted yesterday that it isn't just military bases named for disgraced figures but that civilian federal buildings are also named after confederates, KKK members and segregationists. Eric Katz wrote that "In recent weeks as protesters nationwide have demanded new steps to promote racial justice, pressure has mounted for the U.S. military to rename its bases that honor Confederate leaders and for local governments to remove monuments. A review of civilian federal buildings shows a number of offices and federal courthouses named after Americans with racist histories as well... Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who oversees GSA and federal buildings as chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s panel on Government Operations, called for a change. 'The federal government must be a beacon of inclusivity,' Connolly said. 'Having federal buildings named after Confederate generals and members of the KKK is shameful and they must be renamed.'"Here are a few from Katz's list of buildings named for notorious racists:
• John A. Campbell U.S. Courthouse; Mobile, Ala.: Campbell resigned from the U.S. Supreme Court at the outbreak of the Civil War to accept a role as Confederate assistant secretary of war. After the war, Campbell fought as an attorney against reconstruction in the South.• Clifford Davis - Odell Horton Federal Building; Memphis, Tenn.: Davis served as a Democratic congressman in Tennessee for 25 years. He first rose to political power with the support of the Ku Klux Klan, a group in which he was actively a member. Davis went on to become a signatory to the Southern Manifesto in 1956, a resolution introduced in Congress to decry Brown v. Board of Education’s mandate that states end segregation in schools.• William M. Colmer Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse; Hattiesburg, Miss.: Colmer, a Democratic congressman, helped spearhead what became the Southern Manifesto, a document that implored southerners to use all "lawful means" to resist the "chaos and confusion" that school integration would cause. It was signed by 82 House members and 19 senators. He fought “tooth and nail” to block the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s, according to the New York Times. Of early court rulings against segregation, Colmer lamented there would be "an even increasing intermingling of negroes and whites in public places." Colmer went on to author a second manifesto in Congress that warned of “grave” dangers of federal legislation protecting civil rights.• Thomas G. Abernethy Federal Building; Aberdeen, Miss.: Abernethy also signed the Southern Manifesto, as well as a letter to the administrator of Veterans Affairs in 1957 requesting VA segregate its medical facilities. A Democratic House member for 30 years, Abernethy left a significant trail of racist speeches and writings. In one such address on the House floor, Abernethy said, “There can be no dispute that a negro problem does exist in our country; that it exists in each and every section where negroes have collected in number; and that the problem is in proportion to the number in each area or city,” adding that, “for nearly 200 years we have lived in peace with our Black brethren of the South.” He went on to say God supported segregation. “Had he intended us to all be alike-- an amalgamated, mulattoed mixture of man-- surely he would have so created us.” Abernethy suggested the push for civil rights was part of a Zionist and communist conspiracy.• Strom Thurmond Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse; Columbia, S.C.: Thurmond served in the Senate for 48 years and was one of the leading voices against desegregation and civil rights. He ran for president as a Dixiecrat in 1948 on a pro-segregation platform and vehemently opposed all civil rights legislation, launching the longest-ever speaking filibuster in an attempt to defeat the 1957 Civil Rights Act. When running for president, Thurmond said at one event, “There’s not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.” While he served in the Senate through 2000, he never publicly renounced his segregationist views.• J.L. McMillan Federal Building and Courthouse; Florence, S.C.: McMillan served in the House for more than 30 years. He spent two decades as head of the District of Columbia Committee, and “made little attempt to hide his contempt for the capital’s African-American majority,” according to John Lawrence, a long-time congressional staffer and author of "The Class of '74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship." When Washington’s black mayor sent the district’s first budget to Congress as it pushed for autonomous rule, McMillan responded by sending a truckload of watermelons to the mayor. McMillan was a signatory to the Southern Manifesto.• Richard B. Russell Federal Building; Atlanta, Ga.: Russell, a senator for nearly 40 years, co-authored the Southern Manifesto. He led a boycott of the 1964 Democratic convention after President Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, calling the landmark legislation, “shortsighted and disastrous.” Gilbert Fite, a historian who wrote a biography of Russell, said, “White supremacy and racial segregation were to him cardinal principles for good and workable human relationships. He had a deep emotional commitment to preserving the kind of South in which his ancestors had lived. No sacrifice was too great for him to make if it would prevent the extension of full equality to blacks.” One of the Senate office buildings next to the Capitol Building is also named after Russell.
Morty did have a good point, though: who decides? Also, where do you draw the line? I'm all for renaming bases and removing statues of Robert E. Lee and other traitors to the country, but, at the same time, toppling a statue of George Washington offends me. But who exactly should be the judge of the balance of history? Yesterday I got a press release entitled "Teddy Roosevelt supporter to offer to spend $1 million to save statue at American Museum of Natural History." Frank Scurlock, public masturbator, founder of Scurlock Entertainment Global, Positive Sky and Air World Enterprises, and the owner of Space Walk Inc, a company specializing in bounce houses, ran for mayor of New Orleans in 2017 and came in 9th in the crowded field, garnering 385 votes (0.47%). He has now "announced a rally to save the statue and has offered $1 million to purchase the statue if it was to be taken down. Scurlock announced a rally of local residents this week. Scurlock says taking down this iconic monument defames the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt and believes that the history of our first environmentalist president should be preserved for future generations to learn from. Scurlock has been a controversial figure in fighting for statues that memorialize history and was arrested attempting to preserve the Jefferson Monument in New Orleans."
