As you may or may not know, our idiot of a governor has declared April Confederate History Month. When he originally issued the proclamation he left out any mention of slavery because he didn’t feel that it was significant enough to mention. If you know me or are my facebook friend, you know this pissed me off! I already have a DEEP disliking for this governor. I really don’t trust this man & the fact that so many people voted for him makes my stomach churn. Everything that he has done in office is atrocious. But back to the subject at hand, as a black citizen of Virginia, this is so offensive! I’m having trouble finding words to express my anger. First of all, the world confederate is offensive. I’m not going to lie, if I see a confederate flag outside of somebody’s house, I’m not going in! I assume that they are racist and probably wouldn’t want me in their house anyways. So to celebrate that blows my mind. The other side says the confederacy is part of Virginia’s heritage. Yes, but it’s an ugly part of our heritage that should not be celebrate. It’s purely ridiculous. People say that the south went to war save their economy, that’s true. But do you know what their economy is based on? SLAVES. People say that they went to war to save their lifestyle. You know what a major part of their lifestyle was? SLAVES. These people went to war (against their own country, which I will get to later), to fight for the right to OWN other people. This is what we should celebrate? And then the governor said he did this to celebrate our “shared” history. No, no, no, his history and my history are completely different. My ancestors were owned and degraded by his ancestors. That is not a shared history. And for him to even hint at that notion is extremely hurtful. Another thing, these people were terrorists. Some of their arguments that they used are the same arguments that terrorists in other countries use. Don’t get me wrong, I am all about honoring the soldiers that gave their lives but in that case, why not call it “Civil War History Month.” As I said before, the term confederate is something that sparks a lot of emotion & fear in any African American person. And I have a hard time imagining that a man as educated as the governor could not find another word to use. It makes no sense to me! This seriously pissed me off for a couple days. This also sparked a debate on my facebook, but it was a debate that was divided along racial lines. For example, my white friend said “Recognition of history is good, without it, it is doomed to repeat itself.” Another white friend said “Why does it have a negative connotation? That was the name of the seceding group. Just because it something is affiliated with the confederacy doesn't mean it is the KKK or black-person-hating.” Neither of these are valid points. One of my black friends said “Netime i see a confederate flag i assume dat craker is racist, fuck condfederate month day week watver hell he wants to do i swear i hate white people with power.” This is not well written but I tend to agree. Another argument was one comparing it to Black History Month. THAT ARGUMENT IS BULLSHIT. The reason for black history month is because it wasn’t taught in school before the month was created. Living, 5 minutes away from Jefferson Davis Middle, I’m going to tell you that we get plenty of confederate history in school. We don’t need to celebrate treason & racist practices anymore then we do. We are constantly bombarded in our history books & schools with them trying to gloss over the civil war. It’s pure crap & I wish somebody would call these out on it. Don’t pretend that the civil war was not fought over slavery, because it was. These people wanted to continue their lifestyle, which would not have been possible without exploiting another group of people. This is just unfortunate to me because the governor hasn’t done anything for Virginia except be divisive. First he took away protection for homosexuals and now he is celebrating Virginia’s racist past. It makes me cringe to think of what he’s going to do next. Shame on anyone who voted for this guy. You know what, that’s gotta go in caps. SHAME ON ANYONE WHO VOTED FOR THIS IDIOT. And the fact that people agree with his racist, sexist, classist, discriminating policies makes me beyond angry. He has made Virginia the laughingstock of the nation. I turned on my TV and commentators on MSNBC, ABC, CNN, even Fox news were making fun of this guy. It’s just ridiculous. I truly, truly dread the next 3.5 years of living under this guy. I detest any man who wants to discriminate against any race, gender, sexuality, disability, or anything else. It is repulsive & this guy should be ashamed of himself. I don’t know how he sleeps at night. CREIGH DEEDS, I WISH YOU WERE MY GOVERNOR. The fact that this man has power sickens me. Sorry that this is so long guys but this is just a hot button issue & it really pissed me off. I haven’t been this mad in a long time.
PS-Sorry that I'm not done yet but living in a state that celebrates this kind of scares me. Read the comic in the pic, it expresses my sentiments exactly
