• CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    5 months ago

    Why did no one nominate Robert Eleementary School to begin with? I’m certain that Robert E. Lee would be happy with that name.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        Robert E. Lee, and several of his commanding generals, specifically said that no one should ever commemorate their names or visages. That means no statues, or places named for them. They recognized that they were traitors.

        Woodrow Wilson didn’t give a fuck about dead men’s wishes.

      • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        5 months ago

        I’m not american so dont really know much about its significance.

        Still would agree that it was a missed opportunity to not call it Eleementary way back when it was named.

        • rhadamanth_nemes@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          5 months ago

          The Confederacy seceded to protect their right to own slaves, and soldiers on the side of the Confederacy killed and died to protect their right to own slaves.

          Not the kind of people we should be honoring by building statues and naming schools for them.

        • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          Calling it Lee anything is pretty dark. The name comes from slavery and and discrimination. It is tied to white supremacy groups that go around and hang African Americans they don’t like. Black Americans were dragged out of houses by a mob and then beaten heavily before finally being hung on a tree branch. (The KKK is the group I’m referring to)

          Of course this was not all of America and this kind of behavior has since stopped and we now we aim to stop racism not promote it.

          Here are the lyrics to a Billie Holiday song called “strange fruit” (it is in reference to lynchings)

          [Verse 1]

          Southern trees bear a strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

          [Verse 2]

          Pastoral scene of the gallant south The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

          [Verse 3]

          Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop Here is a strange and bitter crop

        • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          Robert E Lee is similar to Rommel. It’s problematic to use their name for things, but ignoring them is historically dishonest.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        He would have been happier to have nothing named for him and no statues erected. Apparently Woodrow “Author of Southern Revisionism” Wilson didn’t give even half a fuck about the dead man’s wishes. Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and a bunch of the other generals all specifically said that no monuments or commemorations should be erected to honor them, as they recognized they were traitors.

        Wilson is the one that refounded the KKK, helped fund the filming of Birth of a Nation, showed said travesty of a movie at The White House, used his Yale credentials to write Southern Revisionism, used his power as president to erect said statues and change the names of places and monuments, and segregated The Federal Government. That’s just looking at his domestic policies. Wilsonian Doctrine gave us the Forever Wars that have ensued since, and that could easily be argued to be the least damaging thing that asshole did.

        Wilson is only second to Jackson for worst president ever, and that’s only because Jackson paid off the national debt, and caused the worst depression in US history. Deepest by economic percentage, though not dollar amount, and longest by over a decade. They both committed their own flavors of genocide against the Native Americans.