Robert E. Lee is trending. We in the South "need" our myths: the kindly old general who would've whupped them Yankees if given enough time and opportunity. the slave owner who supposedly abhored slavery. a man of honor & courage. it's how we white Southerners can look at our +

surroundings, our unfortunate reality, and believe that we are better than this. The picture we hold in our minds of the mythical South is more important than the the reality in which we live. We rank near the bottom in education, in literacy. At the top for infant deaths. +

We rank damn near dead last for reproductive rights. Our leaders suppress Black and POC voters, and we sit back, okay with it, because it holds a white power structure in place, a place where we are comfortable and unchallenged, a place where minority voices are silenced.

We praise Robert E. Lee and fly that goddamned "rebel" flag because it's sunk cost at this point, and we won't walk away. Ignorant but proud. That's us. We still have our pride here in the South, but in large swaths of the region, that's ALL we fuckin' have.