Despite Donald Trump’s pathetic attempts to convince us otherwise, there is nothing good about white supremacy and nothing “very fine” about the people who believe in it. His presidency has been a jarring reminder about how far we have to go in addressing it and many people around the country are actively stepping up to do so. Right after last year’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, activists and local politicians began fervently demanding that Confederate statues be removed. Around the country, those wretched statues began to come down—in places like Baltimore; New Orleans; Lexington, Kentucky, and more.
And on Monday night another statue fell, this time in North Carolina, due to the efforts of protestors on the campus of the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. The statue, known as Silent Sam, was toppled by protestors during a rally which was a demonstration in support of a UNC graduate student who faces criminal charges for throwing red ink and blood on the statue four months ago. It is a good thing that the protestors forced the statue down after decades of controversy—because the university, clearly, had no plans to remove it.
In fact, while other cities and locations were imagining an alternative future that is free of white supremacy, UNC spent almost $400,000 on security and surveillance cameras for the statue over the last year. Of course, an archaic state law prevented the university from removing the statue from its campus. The university chancellor weighed in on the act, calling it “unlawful and dangerous.” Likewise North Carolina’s governor issued a statement, saying that “violent destruction of public property has no place in our communities.”
This is how white supremacy is allowed to continue. It places the importance of things and property over the lives of people. The governor has it wrong. It is actually structures that perpetuate violence and hatred that have no place in our communities. This country has spent decades privileging the legacy of those who murdered and supported the oppression of black people in the name of white supremacy. That has no place anywhere except for a museum. Andrew Skinner, a recent UNC graduate, said it best: “It shows that we have the power to be on the right side of history. … We as a country have a lot of change and a lot of healing to do, and we are not going to get there putting racism on a pedestal.”