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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:02 PM May 2017

'Sanitizing History': Condoleezza Rice Slams Attempts to Remove Slave Owners' Monuments

by Matthew Balan | 9:50 am, May 8th, 2017

On Monday’s Fox and Friends, Condoleezza Rice criticized efforts to tear down statues and monuments to U.S. historical figures who owned slaves.

“When you start wiping out your history — sanitizing your history — to make you feel better, it’s a bad thing,” Rice said.

Host Brian Kilmeade noted that Rice started out her new book, “Democracy,” by writing about the U.S. Constitution. He wondered, “As an African-American woman, do you see yourself in this constitution? Do you think that, when we look at nine of our first twelve presidents as slave owners, should we start taking their statues down and say, we’re embarrassed by you?”

Rice replied, “I’m a firm believer in keep your history before you. And so, I don’t actually want to rename things that were named for slave owners.” The former secretary of state continued, “I want us to have to look at the names and recognize what they did; and be able to tell our kids what they did and for them to have a sense of their own history.”

more
http://www.mediaite.com/online/sanitizing-history-condoleezza-rice-slams-attempts-to-remove-slave-owners-monuments/

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'Sanitizing History': Condoleezza Rice Slams Attempts to Remove Slave Owners' Monuments (Original Post) DonViejo May 2017 OP
... 2naSalit May 2017 #1
Stupid tanker! longship May 2017 #17
Precisely...nt 2naSalit May 2017 #18
she'll say anything to sell her new book. spanone May 2017 #2
The inventor of mushroom clouds doesn't get to invoke historical revisionism. Orsino May 2017 #3
If that's the case, then where are the monuments to the slaves or to the abolitionists? ck4829 May 2017 #4
When Alabama designates Nat Turner State Park I'll accept the "it's just history" line nt geek tragedy May 2017 #16
Yeah, it's almost as bad as not wanting to revisit American History's sins . . . HughBeaumont May 2017 #5
So why did they dynamite exboyfil May 2017 #6
Still waiting for her to wake up from her nap in July of 2001 while she and shrub kairos12 May 2017 #7
Recognizing them and what they did, yes angrychair May 2017 #8
Rice is as ignorant as she is wrong. J_William_Ryan May 2017 #9
So she would be OK with monuments to this... Solly Mack May 2017 #10
Well said, Solly. nt PunkinPi May 2017 #13
Thank you. I'm certain she wants that "history" forgotten yesterday. Solly Mack May 2017 #14
that is interesting.... Thomas Hurt May 2017 #11
Keep the monuments, but put them in a museum as a reminder of how black slavery was celebrated. Doodley May 2017 #12
Does Germany have statues of Adolf Eichmann or plazas named after Hermann Goering? geek tragedy May 2017 #15
+1!!!! 2naSalit May 2017 #19
museums books ? JI7 May 2017 #20
I see a difference between honoring people Retrograde May 2017 #21
Agree with the distinction you have made. Sinistrous May 2017 #22
Oh christ, the fact those monuments exist is because of sanitized history renegade000 May 2017 #23
this nt Abu Pepe May 2017 #24

Orsino

(37,428 posts)
3. The inventor of mushroom clouds doesn't get to invoke historical revisionism.
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:06 PM
May 2017

Let's keep our history before us, and recall that Rice remains complicit in some of the biggest lies ever told by anyone, anywhere.

ck4829

(35,045 posts)
4. If that's the case, then where are the monuments to the slaves or to the abolitionists?
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:07 PM
May 2017

Only one side here has sanitized history in that region.

HughBeaumont

(24,461 posts)
5. Yeah, it's almost as bad as not wanting to revisit American History's sins . . .
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:08 PM
May 2017

. . . . . like our almost perpetual involvement in war, slavery, the eradication of Native Americans, corporate crimes, Corporate America's constant attacks on the poor, the Cold War, misogyny and sexism, the violence towards the LGBTQI community, the shredding of the social contract and social safety net, etc. etc.

. . . mostly because we want to keep on committing those sins. OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

kairos12

(12,852 posts)
7. Still waiting for her to wake up from her nap in July of 2001 while she and shrub
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:10 PM
May 2017

sleptwalk toward 9/11.

angrychair

(8,694 posts)
8. Recognizing them and what they did, yes
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:16 PM
May 2017

Lifting them up by giving them monuments and naming schools or roads or buildings after them sends the wrong message to our kids and those new citizens to our country.
We can talk about them and what they did without glorifying them. Those monuments should be to the slaves and poor and disadvantaged on whose back this new nation was built on.

Why are so many of our monuments to war, death and the wealthy and so little to our scientists, writers and thinkers?
It goes to a fundamental flaw in our core values as a nation.

J_William_Ryan

(1,752 posts)
9. Rice is as ignorant as she is wrong.
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:18 PM
May 2017

Nothing is being "destroyed"; such monuments are being relocated to more appropriate venues available for all to see, along with other relics of history.

Solly Mack

(90,762 posts)
10. So she would be OK with monuments to this...
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:22 PM
May 2017






...and there are more photos to choose from to turn into monuments.

Cause, you know, she wouldn't want history to be sanitized. (snortcoughchokespittlespew)

Monuments to history are one thing. A monument(s) that celebrates the oppressor is another.

You can teach the history of slavery without celebrating the slave owners.




Solly Mack

(90,762 posts)
14. Thank you. I'm certain she wants that "history" forgotten yesterday.
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:38 PM
May 2017

The victims of America's torture will never forget.

Thomas Hurt

(13,903 posts)
11. that is interesting....
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:29 PM
May 2017

she is basically making that the argument that it is a bad thing to sanitize revisionist history.

Not sure that I buy that....not sure that I don't either I guess.

 

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)
15. Does Germany have statues of Adolf Eichmann or plazas named after Hermann Goering?
Mon May 8, 2017, 12:40 PM
May 2017

One does not need to celebrate history's monsters in order to remember the evil they did.

Retrograde

(10,133 posts)
21. I see a difference between honoring people
Mon May 8, 2017, 02:13 PM
May 2017

like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe - even Jackson - for their roles in shaping the United States, and honoring people like Jefferson Davis, Nathan Bedford Forrest, PT Beauregard, and Robert E. Lee who actively fought to dissolve the union and maintain a culture which treated some people like chattel. The Confederates were traitors per the Constitution.

If Washington and Lee University wants to erect a statue to one of its presidents, Robert E. Lee, I think that would be OK. If the Pentagon wants to erect statues of all former Secretaries of War/Defense and that includes Jefferson Davis, ok, that puts him in a historical context. But statues or other monuments based solely on their role in the rebellion is where I draw the line: they were erected to promote white supremacy and I had hoped we were beyond that by now.

renegade000

(2,301 posts)
23. Oh christ, the fact those monuments exist is because of sanitized history
Mon May 8, 2017, 07:26 PM
May 2017

Have to harp on all the buzz words like "states rights" and "local rule" and not draw attention to the whole economy based on racial subjugation and human slavery bit.

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