A Confederate statue has been reinstalled thanks to President Donald Trump’s ongoing mission to restore landmarks and tributes linked to slavery and racism.
A statue commemorating infamous Gen. Albert Pike, which was torn down during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, is back on display in Washington, D.C. The National Park Service announced back in August that the statue would be erected again as part of Trump’s push to “present a full and accurate picture of the American past.”
Pike was dishonorably discharged in 1862 after accusations of misappropriating funds and taking up arms against the United States, according to the BBC.
On top of that, the Boston-born general has been long accused of being a force in the creation of the Klu Klux Klan. However, the Freemasons, who counted Pike as a member and paid for the statue in his honor, deny this claim.
But a little racist affiliation hasn’t stood in the way of Trump’s White House honoring dubious people before.
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After all, a painting of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was rehung in the U.S. Military Academy West Point’s library depicts an enslaved Black man leading a horse in the background as the military leader poses stoically in his uniform.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has crowed about restoring the names of military bases that were stripped of their original names honoring Confederate leaders.
The Trump administration has even pushed the narrative that slavery was beneficial to Black people onto the Smithsonian, arguing that it wasn’t as bad as modern history makes it out to be.
The push to sanitize the country’s racist history has even extended to Yellowstone and Yosemite. According to signage found at national parks in June, visitors were encouraged over to report any disparaging opinions “about past or living Americans.”
All of this work to place slavery back on a pedestal stemmed from Trump’s March executive order demanding the U.S. restore “truth and sanity” to American history.
Then again, Trump’s idea of restoring American history also involves destroying history that has any link to his mortal enemy: diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Museums acknowledging Black history have been purged of critical exhibits. Websites honoring groundbreaking Black athletes, like Jackie Robinson, were briefly removed before being reinstated. Historic passages including women and people of color were scraped from military websites out of fear that they might be considered DEI.
Ultimately, the Trump regime’s idea of “restoring” history seems to apply only to the white male gaze.
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