False Equivalencies and Confederate Monuments

I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts in regards to the recent events in Charlottesville, VA, Baltimore, MD, Durham, NC, and upcoming events scheduled for this weekend. Here’s a collection of a few particularly good ones.

Feel free to comment with more podcasts you appreciated on this topic.

A Monumental Problem from NPR’s 1A
This podcast episode from NPR’s 1A touches on the history of the Confederate monuments, including opinions on both side of the argument. I consider this episode essential listening.

Charlottesville Rally Violence
This episode from the same show touches on the specific events in Charlottesville, how they played out, and where we are headed.

It’s Been a Minute With Sam Sanders
This episode discusses how to talk to your kids about current events, and how white people can help. (You should already have this in your podcast queue. You do, right?)

Portland Press Herald’s Opinion Podcast. This is a local Maine newspaper’s opinion podcast, but worth a listen no matter where you live. It covers not only Charlottesville, but what this says about our political atmosphere right here in Maine as we head into our gubernatorial election.



My last thought comes directly from a Facebook post I put up last night:

I have seen the phrase “false equivalence” used about ten separate times today. I used it once myself. And I heard it on a podcast. 

Basically, what I’m saying is that all your attempts to justify the confederate flag and confederate statues by comparing them to other situations... they’re all false equivalencies.

And there’s a reason you haven’t found an argument that actually is logical and effective...

Attempts to say that this is equivalent to Vietnam War Monuments and (seriously?) Muslim Mosques is absolutely ridiculous. Stop trying to justify your bigotry with examples that are completely unrelated. 

As Jillian Johnson on 1A’s “A Monumental Problem” episode says, “These statues were not put up to venerate confederates, they were put up as monuments to white supremacy.” 

And I’m not okay with venerating white supremacy any longer in this country.