statues and monuments aren't history. history is history. people create statues and monuments as a reflection of how they want to remember the past, but that's an inherently romanticized exercise.

the study of history can be too, but we try and avoid that as much as we can (1/8)

we continually made the mistake of thinking that a monument or statue certifies historical relevance or morality, because sometimes we're awed by the physicality of history made "real" and sometimes we're just intellectually lazy (2/8)

ultimately the entire debate about statues/monuments addresses one of the most fundamental challenges i have in teaching history: how do you convince people the importance of historical figures and movements and events that HAVEN'T been deified via monuments/whatever (3/8)

and furthermore, how do you convince people that the mere existence of a statue or monument says much, much more about the people who erected it rather than the subject of the piece (which may be, in reality, totally different than how it's presented)? (4/8)

statues and monuments can be cool and important but their face value historiographical worth is generally pretty low. so the debate isn't about history, it's about what myths/beliefs as a society we think best represent ourselves. (5/8)

the people who want to rename buildings and take down monuments aren't rejecting "history," because this debate has ever been about that. they're rejecting the idea that the central american values of freedom and justice should be personified by slave owners and racists. (6/8)

believing that robert e lee or andrew jackson can still personify the positive aspects that we want to see in ourselves and our country is dumb and wrong. but in addition to that, we need to reframe this debate as one about values and not about history. (7/8)

no one loses history if a statue is taken down. we can only lose history if we refuse to learn and engage with the totality of a historical figure or event in favor of narratives that makes us feel good. which, basically, is what monuments are all about. (8/8)

anyway, tl;dr, the stone mountain relief sculpture is bad and should be removed k thxia

ps, i do think that many existing monuments/parks can be salvaged and contextualized to make them more historically honest. ft sumter has changed A LOT in the last decade for the better, for example. but you've gotta be willing to challenge what people thought they were gonna get