Monday, January 15, 2018

The Confederate Monuments at the Court House Steps Must Come Down

These remarks were given in substantial part to a gathering of law students at North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham, North Carolina on August 14, 2017. They are inspired by and adapted in large part from the Eulogy given by Dr. Martin Luther at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on September 18, 1963 at the service for three children who were killed as a result of a racially motivated bombing. Other inspiration came from the Eulogy given by President Barack Obama on June 17, 2015 for Senator Clementa Pinckney and the eight other victims of the attack on Emanuel AME Church. Both speeches are worthy of our attention during this time of racial violence. Immediately after these remarks, I joined protesters at the Durham Old Court House where they eventually removed the confederate monument.
Since then I have come to see that Confederate Monuments at the Court House Steps are government sponsored speech glorifying the history of white supremacy, and constitute unconstitutional government hate speech.
                                                                     ~

I am honored to be asked to give remarks about peace today, and remarks about racism and the violence of white supremacy.  I am sensitive to the fact that I am white, a beneficiary of the legacy of white supremacy, still wrestling with my own internalized racism. It is a testament to this fine institution North Carolina Central University School of Law that you would ask for my perspective during such a painful time in our racial history.
My colleague, friend, and inspiration, attorney Satana Deberry, wrote today “I have had enough of white people explaining to my fully grown black ass how things work. I am weary of false equivalencies. I tire of the “in my opinions.” I chafe at the arguments that “both sides” need to calm down – as if those who would see my children dead are simply arguing over sugar versus cheese grits. I resent every single post that declares “this Is not us,” or “love wins.” Or any of the other bull shit substitutes for real, concrete action to dismantle the system of oppression that keeps us all (even white people) from reaching our full potential. I am sick unto death.
In honor of Satana’s wise words, I will try not to be just another white person telling you how things work.
We gather in the Great Hall of this law school, born itself of the civil rights movement, lead at times by the great civil rights lawyers of that generation, to speak of peace during violent times, and inclusion during times of vulgar and violent racism.
Heather Heyer was only 32 years old when she was run down in a vehicle by a racist while she was protesting. At least 35 other people were seriously injured.  They have entered the stage of history in the crusade for freedom of dignity and their sacrifice has something to teach each of us.
They have something to say to every politician who has fed constituents the dangerous bread of hatred and the vicious red meat of racism. I am thinking of the bill passed in our North Caroling House of Representatives in April 2017 which would provide immunity from civil liability for anyone who hits a protester with a car.  That kind of reckless legislation is exactly the kind of political act which gives unbalanced and racist people the impression they can maliciously run over activists with impunity. That legislation passed 67 to 48 in the House of our legislature. I am thinking of the myriad number of bills, including the racially gerrymandered voting districts and voting restrictions, which have been stricken down as unconstitutional by our courts.
I am thinking of the bill, signed into law by then Governor McCrory in July 2015 protecting confederate memorials from removal by local governments. Remember that the KKK and Nazis organized in Charlottesville in response to a local effort to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee.  Our State legislature has pre-empted important local discussion over the legacy of racism by codifying into law the protection for the blood soaked legacy of slavery, civil war, and racial terror by the militarized force.
     These confederate monuments no longer have a place in the center of our public squares. There are no statues of Hitler in Germany because even though it history marks that moment in time, there are dark moments in our history that are not worthy to lift up a public shared values and public celebration. The enslavement of Africans, the use of bloody militarized force to protect that enslavement, and the genocide of Native Americans are such chapters in our own history unworthy of public commemoration. This is particularly true as we face a time in the course of our own current events when politicians are feeding the red meat of racism to citizens willing to act violently on this political provocation. The confederate monuments at the steps of our Court house celebrate the traitorous violent defense of racialized human enslavement. They warn every person of color who must walk beneath their shadow that the promise of the equal protection of the law within the Court house is another false hope, another bad check returned for insufficient funds. How can a person of color expect the equal protection of the law when there is a monument to the Confederacy at the court house steps?
Now is a good time to uniformly and resoundingly denounce these values and remove these confederate monuments. We should replace these monuments celebrating militarism in defense of racism, with those who resisted institutional racism – Frederick Douglas, Bayard Rustin, Ida B. Wells, and workers on the underground railroad.
I am thinking of the way police have supported and emboldened white supremacy. I remember watching video of the Durham Police arrive in riot gear, shields, helmets, guns, to a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest. And I watched as sheriff deputies in Graham, North Carolina practically welcome the confederate memorial day celebration with no riot gear or show of violence. I watched horrified as the police in Charlottesville failed to create a barrier between protesters and counter-protesters and thereby invited the violence to occur.
In addition to these specific issues, I also think of the current assault on the UNC Center for Civil rights, the legacy of Julius Chambers, champion of Civil Rights, and graduate of this university. The current majority of politicians would not only end protections for civil rights and poor people, but also prohibit the training of the future civil rights lawyers and advocates for the poor. The current political climate is not just cowardly in the face of resurgent racism, our leaders are actively promoting policies which dismantle the civil rights era protections and rob us of the advocates to enforce those protections. The assault on programs for poor people and the defunding of legal aid are aimed at depriving people of basic needs, including the access to justice.
In addition to the politicians who are feeding our people the red meat of racism, I think of good willed, well meaning, affluent liberal folks who are standing on the sidelines of the struggle watching events unfold and not getting involved. These folks are focused on their jobs and their families, and will not act until these changes touch their lives personally. Their silence and inaction is also reprehensible and morally indefensible.  Those who are silent about the celebration of the Confederacy are complicit in the white supremacy it continues to purvey.
The lost life of this protester and those injured along with her tell us who have stood on the sidelines of this mighty struggle for justice, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say we must be concerned not merely with the misguided soul who committed murder, but with the system, the way of life, the philosophy, ideology, economics, politics, and culture which produced the murderer. They say we must work passionately and un relentingly for the realization of a community of equality and inclusion.
I think of the place where this attack occurred. A public space where people were protesting against racism and white supremacy. In a democracy founded on the freedom of speech and assembly, the bloody sidewalk where this attack occurred is the closest thing our secular society can have to holy ground.  These people were putting their lives on the line to resist an ideology and way of the thinking abhorrent to human dignity and moral decency.
I think of the white supremacists who gathered to assert their own first amendment rights. Armed with torches. Some of home beat and attacked non-violent protesters, another who killed a nonviolent counter protester.  It is no understatement to call these people what they are – terrorists.  For all the resources we place in seeking out and destroying radical Islamic terrorism, we have suffered the death of more people in our country to radical white supremacy than any other sick ideology in our history. 
And even as I call these people terrorists, I am mindful of the need to use caution, and resist the urge to dehumanize people.  As Dr. Martin Luther King said in his eulogy for the four children killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing, “somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and worth of all human personality.”
I am also reminded to resist the temptation to boil or problem of racism down to a few bad apples, to simply the problem of race to a mere moral failing. That would ignore the centuries of laws, policies, and institutions which have encoded racism into the fabric of economics, politics, and culture. The systemic nature of racism in our society means that institutes create racial disparities without any overt racist intent.
And so we must resist both the tragic large macro attacks of racism on our society in the form of these acts of violence. And we must also resist the innumerable micro-aggressions of racism in the systems of care – the justice system, housing, health care, employment, and education.
It is important to pay attention to our feelings at a time like this. To learn what they have to teach us as messengers. Grief can teach us tenderness and empathy. Fear can teach us alertness. Anger and Righteous outrage can give us energy to act. But each of these feelings when taken too far can lead us into darkness. We must be careful when fighting monsters, not to become a monster. Or means and ends must be consistent with our values of human dignity, inclusion, and equality.

Finally, I think of Julius Chambers, a graduate and former chancellor of this university who argued and won some of the most important civil rights cases of his time before the United States Supreme Court. His car was bombed, his office was bombed, and still he continued to use his skills and intellect in service of civil rights. So I charge you to go forth, study the law, hone your skills, and put yourself in the position to resist racism, militarism, and economic oppression in our community. 

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