Creative Loafing: Georgia Should “End” All Confederate Memorials

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Last November, I organized a protest of the removal of the Tom Watson statue from the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta.

Gov. Nathan Deal said at the time that the removal of the Watson statue was only “a safety issue” and that it needed to be moved due to renovations on the steps on that side of the Capitol. In March, the Republican-controlled Georgia state legislature passed a measure sponsored by Rep. Tyrone Brooks to erect a statue to Martin Luther King, Jr. on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol.

Gov. Deal signed that bill into law in May. Rep. Tyrone Brooks of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, who orchestrated both the removal of the Tom Watson statue and the erection of the new Martin Luther King, Jr. statue, was indicted by a federal grand jury on 30 counts of mail, wire, and tax fraud.

When the Tom Watson statue was being removed, I was asked by Joeff Davis, a reporter from Creative Loafing, why the League of the South and Council of Conservative Citizens had organized the protest. I compared the removal of the Tom Watson statue to the destruction of Buddhist monuments by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Joeff Davis showed up at the Tom Watson protest and interviewed several of us for a documentary he was making about the story. At the time, I elaborated at length on why we were opposed to the removal of the Watson statue, and I repeatedly said that it was another step down a slippery slope in a broader campaign of cultural genocide that would incite further attacks on Southern and Confederate monuments.

I remember standing there at the Georgia State Capitol and explaining to Davis that we would be back to defend the remaining Confederate monuments:

“From Confederate Memorial Day to streets named for Ku Klux Klan founders, the state of Georgia should pull the plug on its official support of Confederacy celebrations, say two Valdosta activists in a recent open letter to Gov. Nathan Deal and the entire General Assembly. …

The letter is the brainchild of Mark Patrick George, a Valdosta State University sociologist who runs a project studying a local lynching spree of the early 1900s, and the Rev. Floyd Rose of the Lowndes/Valdosta chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

“We contact you today to respectfully call for an end to the state of Georgia’s endorsement, promotion and support of all Confederate holidays, events, and its management of historic sites and monuments related to the Confederacy. We also call for an immediate change to all state roads and highways currently named for Confederate leaders,” says the letter, sent on June 23.

Who is Mark Patrick George (mpgeorge@valdosta.edu)?

“Dr. George is an activist sociologist who teaches courses in Race/Class/Gender, Sexuality, and Masculinity Studies. His scholarly attention and community organizing work focuses on antiracist, antisexist, and anti-heterosexist initiatives in the deep South. In addition to his academic pursuits, he serves as the Coordinator for the Mary Turner Project and the Education Committee Chairperson for the Lowndes/Valdosta Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In his spare time he enjoys gardening, cooking, making documentary films, and canoeing.”

Here’s an excerpt from Mark Patrick George’s “On The Ground: Struggles and Lessons of Antiracism Work”:

“The fact that oppressions are not only interconnected but overlap and fuel one another is not going away on its own, nor will the fact that many of us are oppressive and destructive because of the sexism, heterosexism, classism, racism, and other “isms” we live out as we do our change work. Therefore, it may be time for us to acknowledge that although we may be oppressed along one social category we can simultaneously be oppressive if we enjoy class, male, Christian, and heterosexual social privilege …

It’s about changing the belief that difference is deviant, something threatening, and something to be feared and squashed. In fact, change efforts typically make the case that this practice drives the oppressive systems we want to change, whether we talk about it in terms of Eurocentricity, monoculturalism, patriarchy, heterosexism, or class exploitation.”

At its core, the opposition is driven by an anti-White, anti-Southern, and anti-Christian animus, which causes leftists to lash out in rage at Confederate monuments. In Mark Patrick George’s case, he is also anti-male, anti-heterosexual, and anti-middle class, which is all part of the same “oppressive system” he “wants to change.”

Note: “Racism” is a bogus sin which was conjured into existence by twentieth century leftists and popularized in the 1930s. Several other examples are mentioned by George here such as Eurocentricity, heterosexism, classism, sexism, and monoculturalism. Among our other failings, see also nativism and xenophobia.

About Hunter Wallace 12379 Articles
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Occidental Dissent

15 Comments

    • Why? See “The long march through the institutions.” It was incredibly effective. For the longest time it was “out of sight, out of mind,” which served to give credence to assurances that “it’ll never happen” when farsighted people attempted to issue warnings. Then the tsunami struck.

  1. Hunter, what you said about the actions of the Taliban being like the actions of the people who removed Watson’s statue is correct. The Tali’s wanted to remove any trace’s of Afghanistan’s Buddhist past. The leftist establishment in this country wants to erase our past by vanishing the memory of anyone who stood against their ideas and actions down the memory hole. They may destroy some statues, parks, and ,God forbid, resting places of our hero’s, but in the long run, they can’t destroy historical memory. Too many persons will remember the past, and keep it alive in their hearts and minds. The past may be buried for a while, but it will rise up again, and drive the lies out.

  2. Why didn’t you tell Joeff Davis the whole truth, that not only the removal of Watkin’s statue is disgraceful, but that putting up another MLK statue is even more disgraceful because MLK was a communist-trained plagiarist who embezzled money to pay for his almost-nightly prostitute habit.

  3. Hi Debra,

    Please forward this message to President McKinney:

    Dear Dr. McKinney,

    I wanted to bring something to your attention that I was made aware of yesterday. I am a 1982 graduate of VSC and obtained my BBA in Finance. Under Dr. Scott who is now retired I was presented the Outstanding Finance Major Award. I value my Education I received at VSC and cherish the memories. I am very concerned about the following information.

    An adjunct professor named Mark Patrick George has prepared and sent an open letter to the Governor of Georgia and all of the Senate and House members in our State. I have attached the first four pages of this letter to this email.

    In this letter professor George is using his title of the Mary Turner Project Coordinator. This letter was sent via email frommpgeorge@valdosta.edu. I have attached the copy of this email that was forwarded to me. The email address listing is very long as you can imagine. At the bottom professor George used the following:

    Mark Patrick George, PH. D.

    Mary Turner Project Coordinator

    Department of Women and Gender Studies

    Carswell Hall

    Valdosta State University

    Valdosta, GA 31698

    Upon research of the Mary Turner Project I found the solicitation of funds for a tax donation. See attached page. On this page is listed the following:

    The Mary Turner Project

    c/o Valdosta State University Foundation

    1500 N. Patterson St.

    Valdosta, Georgia 31698

    My point in bringing this to your attention is the fact that my college is listed and used as the source of this letter. I will not go into much detail and argue with it’s contents and purpose other than to say the following:

    The timing of this letter and it’s contents makes this a political use of VSU’s name and most likely it’s resources. The Governor is up for election as we all know. I would consider this letter a message and meaning to use racial politics to affect the upcoming election. I do not write you in support for the Governor. I am an independent.

    Race has been used in the political scheme of Georgia in it’s history. I have been writing a book on my ancestor who served in the 41st US Congress in 1871. This period of what is called reconstruction had my ancestor initially denied his seat due to the racial environment of the time. He was challenged by the man he beat but was allowed to take his seat in spite of the protest.

    While professor George speaks in his open letter of 3,000,000 black citizens I would say that he does not speak for all black Georgians. His letter is an attempt to “Fire” up the base to effect the upcoming election.

    Even in 1871 blacks did not all vote the same. My research for my book shows the following from the congressional record. Misc Doc 103.

    Issac Heard was a colored man who was a former slave. He signed his name with an X. He mentioned that he used to belong to Mr. Perfect & after emancipation took his father’s name. On Harris the man shot and killed at the depot shooting he said that Harris had a bad character and was always in fusses. Heard stated that he was born and raised a Democrat. In the election in his county of Wilkes he said that the majority of coloreds voted the Democrat party. The reason he gave was that the colored people in Wilkes County had become somewhat enlightened. “They thought it become them to look to their own country; they thought they ought to appreciate their own People.” He stated that the Republican Party had placed a class of people before the colored people in Wilkes, a class that he did not believe was popular.

    Therefore, I will put forth the following conclusion:

    The use of Valdosta State University, it’s email, it’s address and it’s resources should not be allowed for political purposes. If Professor George wants to proceed with his political efforts it should not be at the expense of the university. The potential negative publicity and legality of what he is doing could harm my college and I do not want that to happen.

    Finally the attachment of the VSU foundation which is a 501(3)(c) to the political activities of the Mary Turner Project could have adverse effects on the very nature of the foundation and it’s tax exempt status. See section 4.76.3.13.1 of the Internal Revenue Code.

    I look forward to your response and the ceasing and desisting of Professor George’s use of the University for his political agenda.

    John C. Hall, Jr, CPA

    CC: Hank Huckaby, Chancellor

    Tom Daniel, Board of Regents

    Professor George

  4. I actually liked my sociology teacher. I even convinced him it was wrong for Southrons to be displaced and our culture being taken away by using an example about South American Indians being displaced by whites. He was an okay guy.

  5. Even worse is what has happened at Washington & Lee University, removing Confederate flags from the Chapel of the greatest leader and greatest man of the Civil War period, Robert E. Lee. I almost cried in shame when I read that news. The leftist media has so twisted the legacy of this great man of liberty.

  6. “At its core, the opposition is driven by an anti-White, anti-Southern,
    and anti-Christian animus, which causes leftists to lash out in rage at
    Confederate monuments.”

    Why are we not motivated by similar hate? We should be demanding the take down of their blood drenched Indian-killing imperialist flag, demanding an end to any care of Yankee grave sites from the civil war, and portraying them as fascist scum.

  7. You are all racist, white supremacists. Luckily over the next 50 years the light pigmentation you so desperately cling to will be reduced to a minority, and you will no longer be able to perpetuate these ideas in any legitimized forum. I wish you all the best, and hope that someday you will educate your selves and recognize the error in your thought processes, but I am not holding my breath.

    – A white guy.

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