This Has Got To Stop

So, a high school dropout racist loser shoots 9 people, and the country collectively loses it sh!t.  Seriously?

I’m not even going to bother with the racism disclaimer.  Assume it here.

The battle flag of the army of Northern Virginia did not cause this.  The civil war did not cause this.  Southern culture did not cause this.  What caused this was a high school dropout racist loser deciding to vent his loser frustrations on the innocent.  Since he’s a f*cking racist, he decided those innocents should be Black.  But the cause was his racist loserdom, not any other external factor.

So just stop it already.

No, the Confederate Battle Flag does not need to be removed from the State House grounds in South Carolina or any other government building.  Men fought and died honorably for a cause that is honorable – the right of self-determination, among other things.  Yes, that also means they were defending the right of the States to continue slavery, and that’s bad, but Real Life is messy, and by current standards (the ones to which we’re suddenly holding the Confederate warriors) one of the most celebrated Union generals – William Tecumseh Sherman – was a war criminal.  I won’t call him a war criminal (out loud) if you will similarly shut up about your belief that the CBF is somehow a “symbol of racism.”

No, monuments to various Confederate figures, including Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and others, do not need to be taken down.  They were honorable men who fought against (as they saw it) an invasion.  Go read some history, even if you don’t agree with them, at least try to understand why many Southerners still call it “The War of Northern Aggression.”

No, the CBF does not need to be removed from Civil War historical sites, museums, or stores.  Even if I accept that it “represents racism,” which I don’t, that doesn’t change the fact that in America people have the right to be racist.  You may not like it – I certainly don’t like it – but it’s the truth.  And what the CBF does represent is a commitment to fight for Freedom from an oppressive central government.  There may be a time when we want such symbols.

No, things that happen to incorporate the CBF do not need to be removed or forgotten.  Not video games, not TV shows, not books, not anything.  That is part of my culture you’re trying to consign to the flames.

Do you really want to have a “conversation about race?”  Okay, let’s have a conversation about race.

Black on black crime is much higher, per capita, than any other demographic.  Black on white crime is higher than white on black crime.  White on white crime is higher than black on white crime.  These are actual facts. 

Do you really believe “Black Lives Matter?”  I do.  So how about we stop young black men from killing each other.  That seems to be a much bigger danger to them than some high school dropout loser racist.

Do you really believe “Black Lives Matter?”  I do.  So how about we stop enabling a culture which encourages young black women to have sex and then have their babies murdered?  Black women, even controlling for income and social factors, are much more likely than whites to have an abortion.

Stop trying to blame history for today’s bad choices.  Stop trying to pretend that history doesn’t exist.  Stop trying to minimize it and put into some box labeled “Racism.”  Stop lashing out.

And start addressing the real problems.