Five years ago, I wrote the petition to encourage my city councilors to take down Confederate monuments and I stood in the park by that Lee statue to introduce this effort to my neighbors. Since then, I’ve watched as the statues of Confederate generals and slave masters were removedthe country. My work helped inspire this nationwide and now the original, local goal I set out to accomplish is happening. But it is bitter just as it is sweet.
I am proud and trying to force myself to do the hard thing: to feel and be present in the moment, living the same story as so many other Black women and femmes. It’s a story of being forced to feel guilty for celebrating the wins, no matter how big or small they are, a story of having those wins belittled or contextualized as only the beginning.
I know this fight will continue, but I also know my spirit and body are not monuments. They may seem eternal and steadfast, but it’s not impossible to tear them down. My very existence is a challenge to white supremacy, which isn’t an impervious force. As these monuments come down, we are cracking the thin surface and trying to shake them further from their very foundations. That’s why every last monument to our country’s racist history must be removed.
They also represent the act of keeping many of us hidden and erased from collective memory and history. That’s why we must go beyond simply stopping the celebrations of the United States’ racist past. We must say the names of Black women all over, the names of those who are lost to the many forms of violence that disproportionately affect us, the names of the Black girl freedom fighters we’ve lost, and the names of all the Black women who are creating a better world now. Say their names.
This powerful moment in Charlottesville is a chance for me to do exactly that. It is one that we have worked hard for. After all, Black women are the blueprint and the follow-through. Well done to us. To ALL of us. And especially to those of us who are told that our efforts are never enough.
ZyahnaB Lee was a hero.
ZyahnaB ✊🏾✊🏻✊🏾✊🏻✊🏾✊🏻✊🏾
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Robert E. Lee statue removal underway in CharlottesvilleCHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Work has begun Saturday morning to take down a Confederate monument that helped spark a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, nearly four years ago. When do we kick Virginia out of the US it was the Capital of the Confederacy? Good. And nothing of value was lost. Melt them down and make decorative urinals... We are witnessing a great change in the US. 🇺🇸
Source: AP - 🏆 728. / 51 Read more »
Robert E. Lee statue removed in Charlottesville, VirginiaJUST IN: A statue honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed Saturday morning in Charlottesville, Virginia, nearly 4 years after white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups stormed the town to protect it. Good They should replace it with a real hero’s statue- George Floyd or Dr Fauci It’s funny, you’d think the neo-Nazi fascists would be the ones destroying statues...
Source: MSNBC - 🏆 469. / 51 Read more »
Charlottesville, Virginia Removes Robert E. Lee MonumentThe city of Charlottesville, Virginia has removed the Robert E. Lee monument that served as the epicenter of the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017 BULLSHIT It would be pretty lol to replace with a statue of a Jewish person. Wonderful,no more glorifying racists,yes it's history, history of white men fighting to keep slaves.
Source: RollingStone - 🏆 483. / 51 Read more »
The Statue Of Robert E. Lee In Charlottesville Has Finally Been Taken DownZyahna Bryant, who started the 2016 petition to remove Lee's statue, witnessed it being taken down. 'That is a moment I will never forget', she told BuzzFeed News. So good to hear we can finally put all this racism talk behind us! Well done Democrats! I didn’t think you could beat racism but no one paid attention to these statues like you did! Great catch. Now let’s remove the gender signs from bathrooms! That is ruining this country too!🤣
Source: BuzzFeed - 🏆 730. / 51 Read more »
Charlottesville's Robert E. Lee statue removed 4 years after 'Unite the Right' rallyThe statue came down Saturday, nearly four years after white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups stormed the Virginia college town to protect it. Trying to erase history and the statues that remind us of the good and bad things is HORRIBLE! Guess history will repeat itself (maybe in different forms) because our children will not know the warning signs to look for. ..but don't demolish or destroy it. Display it in the Truth Museum being built in ...... (if the Confederate loyalist love the history so much then some of the them should be resurrecting a building to continue the 'story'.
Source: TODAYshow - 🏆 389. / 55 Read more »