Charleston Confederate Statue Spray-Painted With 'Black Lives Matter'

[SunSeeker]

Last edited Sun Jun 21, 2015, 06:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: NBCNews.com

Police say someone spray-painted the message "Black Lives Matter" on a statue memorializing the Confederacy in Charleston several days after a shooting at a historic black church.

Police spokesman Charles Francis said city workers used a tarp to cover up the graffiti marking the stone pedestal beneath the statue. He said he didn't know when the graffiti was spray-painted there, but said it would be cleaned off.

...

Photos on local news websites from before the tarp was put up show the phrase written in bright red paint, along with the message "THIS IS THE PROBLEM. #RACIST." The pedestal's permanent inscription is "To the Confederate Defenders of Charleston."





Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/charleston-church-shooting/charleston-confederate-statue-spray-painted-black-lives-matter-n379376

---

I agree with the person who spray painted this. The inscription "To the Confederate Defenders of Charleston" is wrong on so many levels:
1. Glorifies the Confederacy.
2. Inaccurately describes what the Confederates were doing; those Confederates were not "defending" all of Charleston but seeking to keep its African American residents enslaved (and thereby implying black lives don't matter and are not actual Charleston citizens).
3. Suggests that anyone opposed to the Confederacy ought to be fought.

[RandySF]

1. Charleston

Based on what I heard and read, Charleston had been a small oasis of tolerance for minorities, progressives and the LGBT community. If true, I hope it remains so despite what happened.

[SunSeeker]

2. And yet it is dotted with statues glorifying the Confederacy.

If Charleston is an "oasis," the rest of South Carolina must be truly horrific.

[groundloop]

6. "truly horrific" .... yep, I lived in SC for a couple of years and can't disagree

[Missn-Hitch]

50. Charleston is a beautiful city.

My lady has not been and I am hoping to take her next year. We are going to attend a service at the church and we are certainly not church-going folks.

[SunSeeker]

51. Yes. Its beauty is defiled by these ugly monuments and the hate that supports them. nt

[Missn-Hitch]

52. Indeed.

And I am certain the flag, monuments, etc will still be on display. Sigh. At least one was vandalized today but unfortunately paint is easily removed.

Have a good day.

[jtuck004]

3. Maybe tolerance isn't enough any longer. n/t

[orpupilofnature57]

5. Tolerating evil no matter how banal is evil .

[intheflow]

18. I have never liked the concept of "tolerance."

"Teaching Tolerance" has always struck me as such an odd slogan for an anti-racism campaign. You tolerate things you find unpleasant or distasteful. When talking about racism, it sounds like advocating for a veil of politeness over seething contempt. Acceptance and understanding is what we should be striving for, not tolerance.

[jtuck004]

20. It's an arrogant position, but all they could sell to the whites back then. Time to

move further. It could well mean a lot more violence, and even then the results might not be all that great.

But how we are isn't working, and people of color are bearing the brunt of it.

We need to teach appreciation.

Diversity made us strong - the facts suggest anyone who says otherwise is a liar. Yet now people are being taught to purposely devalue diversity, to embrace suit-and-tie "respectable" racism. That will decrease our security, and is both shortsighted and ignorant.

[intheflow]

28. You're right, of course.

The program title is a product of the time in which it came about in 1991. That's important for me to remember when I rant about how I hate that word when I'm working on anti-racism stuff. Thanks for the reminder.

And appreciation! I'm totally adding that to when I talk about how acceptance and understanding need to be taught. In fact, I might substitute appreciation for understanding in the future. After all, one can only appreciate what one understands. So thanks for that insight, as well.

[daleanime]

35. +1

[Jamastiene]

45. I agree.

Tolerance is telling people to be phony to your face and still hate you behind your back.

[sheshe2]

84. +1

Well stated, Jamastiene.

[MsMAC]

49. I like the way you think! Tolerance is holding your

nose and putting up with something.

[jtuck004]

4. I wonder what you could project onto the racist flag at the capitol with a drone?

Or maybe "Black Lives Don't Matter" printed across the bottom? Perhaps a nationwide distribution, since they are so freakin' proud of it?

They are so proud of this little precious that they have a state law which forces the display.

So maybe a lot more sunshine would burn it up.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

48. Maybe the drone could spray the flag

[yuiyoshida]

7. Is this it?

[jtuck004]

10. Yes.

Sorry, the message is serious. The statue just cracks me up. It's like they made heroes out of Mel Brooks characters.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Check out under the shield. Did he get caught with his pants down?

[jtuck004]

16. "Oh, lord, I'm gonna get the vapors"...

There HAS to be a school board down there that has gotten rid of stuff for less than this...

This really does keep getting more hilarious.

[calimary]

17. Well, I'm sure the sculptor or designer wanted to make sure it was rather large down under there...

White supremacy dontchaknow...



Seems to me a "monument" like that would be good for target practice.

[jtuck004]

21. Thousands of black folk could dress up like Nordic Warriors and create a new holiday, show

up where ever those are and use the statues as idols.

They could invite the neighbors to bring potato salad and iced tea.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

30. Maybe with a pea shooter.

[calimary]

33. With paint pellets.

I usually hate seeing monuments and statues defaced. Like we saw in the coverage of ISIS nutjobs taking hammers and mallets to that ancient statuary and breaking it all up into bits and pieces.

But with the CONfederacy "monuments" I say fair game. Bring on the wrecking balls! And bring Miley Cyrus in, too, to ride on it in the nude while we put it to use! We could make a party out of it!

[Pacifist Patriot]

71. Is there another country on Earth that so openly memorializes traitors who lost a rebellion?

I asked that question once when I was a teenager and stumbled upon a confederate memorial in some podunk Georgia town we stopped in briefly. Thought the server in the cafe was going to have a stroke she was so purple with indignation.

[calimary]

74. But it has to be asked!

Seems to me no one has made a real issue of it. Nobody's ever made a stink about it. Have they? I've not seen that, but then again I haven't followed it closely all this time.

But I think this behavior has been allowed to continue. Benign neglect maybe it is. Nobody's ever come right out and made a stink about it and targeted their motivations, have they? Has anyone really made an issue of drilling down into the mentality of the defense of the CONfederacy? WHY are they defending it? Do they REALLY realize what it is they're defending? Or are they having fun on commemorative weekends dressing up and play-acting and prancing around like it's some sort of ongoing Halloween party for grown-ups?

That's kinda what I see happening with some of these gunners, too. I went to a "shooting clays" event once (clay discs as targets), and it was really kind of embarrassing to watch a few of the men who were guests there. Swaggerin' around like latter-day six-year-old pretend cowboys, with their little pop guns and their little plastic gun holsters and their little cowboy hats from Toys-R-Us that maybe they got for their birthday or something (only these "plastic pop-guns" were deadly real). That's what I felt I was really looking at when I watched them down at the base camp at the party after the various rounds of shooting had finished. I don't know what they were like out on the course (which was well-supervised) because I was in a group of women. It was embarrassing to see grown men prancing around like that. I kept having to fight off an urge to ask - "um... how old are you? Six?" Ridiculous.

I think maybe the whole CONfederacy thing has been treated with benign neglect. No biggie, right? No big deal. Just a flag. But nobody stops to probe into it a little. Has anyone ever challenged any of these people as they cling to that hate rag? Do they even connect the dots? Do they even put 2 and 2 together on it and get 4? Instead of 1860, maybe? It's been benign neglect - allowing this fond befuddlement, this rose-colored-glasses business to take over. It's so much easier and more gratifying to focus on the nice parts - the fun bang-bang-shoot-shoot, the fun rebel soldier outfits and the big sweeping hoop skirts and white gloves and Sunday-best bonnets, the fun cannons and bayonets and Civil War reenactments where you can play all day and go bang-bang-shoot-shoot-"CHARGE!!!!" and nobody gets hurt. Let's reenact history! Fun fun fun! Hmmm... are there also mock-up slave ships that they can go out to the harbor to play on, too? Play ship's captain! You even get this fun whip to crack! YEEEEHAW!!! "Aw, leave it be. What's the harm? They're just funnin'. That's all!"

Well, that shit is the shit that's got to GO. Do we ever see that in Germany? Do they have the wackos who refuse to put those bad ol' days OUT TO PASTURE FOR GOOD? Frankly I can't think of any - except for the crackpot Nazi sympathizers HERE in America who have no problem parading their own swastika shit around in public. The Germans? Not so much.

Seems to me this would be a GREAT time for some network TV programming chief to bring back the miniseries "Roots" for a rebroadcast. PERFECT. Where you see the "good ol' days" of the Old South - from a different point of view. "Gone with the Wind" showed us the plantation owners' view. "Roots" showed us the slaves' view - from their original abduction from Africa onwards.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Oh sheez,...it's an "Olympian Hero" depiction. Melt it down into park benches.

[SunSeeker]

25. Melt it down into a statue of Clementa Pinckney. nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

29. That would be awesome.

[Starry Messenger]

39. +1000

[HPXYZ]

59. What a great idea!

[mopinko]

14. i think they should leave it.

[BumRushDaShow]

23. A UK paper had other pics of protestors burning that flag too

from tweets -



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3133597/Confederate-flags-burned-monuments-defaced-South-Carolina-protesters-lash-wake-racially-motivated-Charleston-church-massacre.html

I like this sign -

[freshwest]

67. Yes, burn the banners of slavery:

I hate this flag and always have:



And raise the flag the young man has:



This one is of the America I love.

[Jefferson23]

86. +1 Excellent..good on them. n/t

[SunSeeker]

27. Yes. Thanks for finding that pre-tarp pic.

The article I found only shows the statue base tarped. Ironic that Charleston city government felt the "Black Lives Matter" graffiti was so offensive that it had to be immediately covered up, but the dedication to the Confederacy was hunky dory.

[LiberalArkie]

38. I can hear it now "Them Ni*s are gonna get it now", "This is terrorism, it has to stop"

[rdking647]

8. every confederate monument should be removed from public property

the confederacy was about racism. pure and simple.
its time for the monuments to racists to be removed

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. The confederacy was about TREASON.

[Jeff Murdoch]

46. #traitorsflag n/t

[calimary]

9. Wonder what a flame-thrower might do?

It'd take too long to chisel it in. You'd get caught.

I agree with whoever spray painted this. Too bad it couldn't be permanent. Wish someone would take rocks and chisels and deface those "monuments." "Monuments"! Monuments to ALL THE WRONG THINGS!!!!! Monuments to anti-Americanism. Not just hatred of blacks. Hatred of the United States of America. Hatred of the UNION - the UNION of the stages.

And somebody talking "states' rights" today is STILL talking about hatred of the union. That states somehow can defy what the union determines is for the greater good of ALL - including all IN those rebel states.

Maybe it's time to tell them to shit or get off the pot. Okay. If you hate being part of this so much - then GO AHEAD AND SECEDE. We won't stop you this time. If you DON'T want to secede, then SHUT THE FUCK UP with your hate-rag flags and rebel hats and uniforms and celebrations of the CONfederacy and how wonderful it was. Wonderful??? My Ass. Put that shit AWAY. Lock it up in a Nazi museum where it belongs and where there's nothing but shame and a lesson being taught about what is NOT right and how NOT to be.

The Civil War was at least 150-some-odd years ago. It's LONG PAST TIME to Get OVER It.

Just GET THE FUCK OVER IT!!!!!!!

[SwankyXomb]

22. C4 and lots of it

[Quackers]

82. If you wanted it to be permanent

Use a paint brush and nitric acid or hydrocloric acid. It would be permanently etched. Not that I'm suggesting that, just pointing out how it could be accomplished.

[calimary]

83. Understood!

Hey, i wasn't planning anything either. Just asking for curiosity's sake. Besides, I'm too far away even if i wanted to.

[PatrynXX]

13. in normal countries

that stuff is pulled down. Iraqi's pulling down Saddams statue whoops.. here the losers are worshiped

[SoapBox]

19. What the heck...

I never knew about such a statue? And there are more around the South?

The disgrace never ends, not to mention...it's like a gladiator concept tor something?

That is just stoopid.

[SwankyXomb]

24. Thousands of them

Every little redneck shitstain hick town's got at least one memorial to the "honored dead who fought in the War of Northern Aggression."

[bigworld]

31. I don't have a problem honoring the individual soldiers

But honoring the Confederate government, now that's a different story.

[Jeff Murdoch]

47. Don't forget all the schools

named after the "heroes."

[Jamastiene]

81. In some areas, you can't walk around without bumping into more

and more of them. It is in-your-face, the way they do it, too. It is truly obnoxious.

[LiberalElite]

26. I love it -

bravo!

and let's see more of those stars n' bars in flames too.

[me b zola]

32. Good

Every statue and symbol that honors the confederacy needs to be burnt or brought down. I hope this begins a movement to rid our country of this stain.

[calimary]

34. Off with their heads. Of every CONfederate statue everywhere.

But with that one pictured in the OP, I might not be able to decide where to aim. (Maybe the "little head"?)

[me b zola]

65. Bit by itty-bitty bit

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

36. I imagine remote controled planes and paint bombs.

[mnhtnbb]

37. Here's a photo of the statue and surrounding White Point Gardens

which is a lovely park in the Battery overlooking where the Ashley River flows in to Charleston harbor.
It's an off leash dog park--and I took this photo in 2012--while out walking
Snowy the first time we went to Charleston for the Spoleto Festival.

The park is filled with all kinds of war memorabilia, canons, statues, etc. Every time I walk
through it--we went back for Spoleto in 2013 and this year in May--I am amazed at how
much Confederate stuff is there. It is, indeed, part of the history of the city.

The full inscription under the dedication includes

Fort Sumter
1860-1865 (?on the first date?)

The statue faces out to Charleston harbor where Fort Sumter is located.


[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[HPXYZ]

61. Nice gardens, awful statue

[Fred Sanders]

40. South Carolina, AMERICA, bring down these symbols of racism and hate. Everywhere.

Or leave them up - and pin them to the Republican Party like a locust on display.

[Rafale]

41. Je suis Charleston.

Je suis Charleston.

[Sedona]

42. its about time the same was done to this piece of shit

http://www.stonemountainpark.com/activities/history-nature/Confederate-Memorial-Carving

[Hoyt]

63. To this day, I don't like going near St Mountain. When I was growing up,

big KKK rallies were held there.

Maybe some day, they'll remove that carving or put up something more appropriate.

[CrispyQ]

43. Spray paint activism that I support!

This fight has already been fought & won.

I oppose everything confederacy. Want to post your confederate flag on the Internet, okay. But anything associated with fed/state govt cannot do that. Get rid of the vanity confederate license plates. Make MS re-design a new flag & all other Southern state flags that are based on that vile symbol.

Send the message: Bigotry is not acceptable.

[Hoyt]

64. I'll contribute the paint.

[kairos12]

44. Faux news will spew more outrage over this than the

shootings.

[Historic NY]

53. I don't think this is what Lincoln had in mind glorfying the confederacy...

when he said its a time to bind up the nations wounds. He went to Richmond and to the Confederate White House. To allow the symbols does nothing & did nothing to promote healing. Had he lived I don't think he would have allowed the symbolism.

[Kalidurga]

54. You know there are alternatives to graffiti...

[straydog]

55. .

So you are suggesting a response similar to what ISiS is doing ?

[Kalidurga]

56. There is art and there are symbols of hate

can you tell the difference?

[straydog]

60. You call for the destruction

of any part of this nations history that you are offended by. Whats next?

[nc4bo]

62. Hahahaha.........wait

Psst......it's called a m.u.s.e.u.s.m. That way it's safe from vandalizers and not offending those who are really working hard to evolve this nation into a post racial society.

[straydog]

66. Whats laughable

Is that you suggest these items are placed in a museum to be protected from vandals and those who are really working hard to evolve this nation. If working hard to evolve requires to destory or erase our nations history than i would remind you " That those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it " The removal and destruction of our nations history to suit your feelings is a knee jerk reaction. Would you call for a removal of all statues, paintings and images that remind us of the ties to slavery that this nation has. If your reply is yes than i would suggest you start a petition to the treasury department and ask that the founding fathers who owned slaves be removed from the currency of this nation.

[nc4bo]

70. If you can't understand the problem

then you are either 1) ignorant OR 2) deliberately ignorant.

If 1, stick around DU, you will become educated and enlightened.

If 2, you are part of America's problem and my advice to you is get out of our way. Your opinion will also be in the minority around here and I or others will gladly suggest a few forums where you will feel much more comfortable .

[nc4bo]

78. How trollish of you.

Walk that fine line enough and you will eventually slip up. It is inevitable.

[Kalidurga]

68. Concern trolling at it's finest.

[nc4bo]

57. Bury that shit in some Get-Our-Country-Back museum in a funky swamp somewhere.

That's where it belongs..............

But no, these racists can't bring themselves to let history like this die or at least fade away as a dark page in history. They are proud of it.

Then have the nerve and audacity to tell black people to just MOVE THE HELL ON and stop whining about non-existent, figment-of-imagination, racism.

Hahahahaha! How rich is that?!

[Kalidurga]

58. Yep they should be proud to bury that thing instead they get mad when someone calls it like it is.

[MADem]

69. Naked idiot with a sword and shield waving his fiddly bits at the crowd...

That sounds like a suitable monument to the confederacy....!!! Display your shortcomings, that way there will be no question whatsoever!!!!

They should gather up all those statues and put them in a Museum of Intolerance...and replace them with statues of the nine people who died.

[Beauregard]

72. This whole issue is complete jive.

The people who put up confederate flags and statues are trolls. They are trying to get your goat, and they have succeeded.

[yurbud]

76. good point.

[SunSeeker]

88. How do you think we should respond to this "trolling" by Southern state governments? nt

[SunSeeker]

77. So you're fine with Southern state governments doing racist trolling using tax dollars? nt

[Beauregard]

85. Non sequitur.

Look it up.

[SunSeeker]

87. You're the one calling "all this" (thus including our objections) "complete jive."

You call what the Southern state governments are doing, as described in the link, mere "trolling." You suggest that we should not react, not be part of the "jive, " because we are just giving them what they want, i.e. "getting our goat."

Your characterization belittles the protests. It implies we should just ignore the glorification of the Confederacy by Southern state governments, because protesting it is just playing into the trolls' hands. I strongly disagree with what you are suggesting. Remaining silent in the face of evil is itself evil.

If you didn't mean it, you shouldn't have said it. My question to you was in no way a non sequitur. If you are not fine with Southern governments using tax dollars maintaining these edifices to hate, how do you think we should react?

[One_Life_To_Give]

73. Should be a 54th Mass statue

As the place where the 54th met it's end. That should be featured there. Maybe it would give context to any Confederate Memorial to see a Memorial to people fighting to free their Brothers and Sisters from Bondage. Wonder if the supporters of Confederate Markers would like to have their statue adjacent to one spelling it out so clearly?

[Paladin]

79. It's a start. (nt)