The Story
The Real Meaning of Confederate History Month
For the first time in eight years, by the declaration of Governor Bob McDonnell, the Commonwealth of Virginia will be celebrating April as Confederate History Month.
In his declaration, McDonnell stated that the history of the Civil War is one that is meant to be commemorated, honored, studied, understood and, most importantly, put on the market as a sellable tourist attraction.
It’s coincidentally very fortunate that Virginia can, per McDonnell’s words in his declaration, "welcome the nation and the world to visit Virginia for the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the Civil War" and that "Confederate historical sites such as the White House of the Confederacy are open for people to visit in Richmond today."
So start printing off your snarky Confederate flag T-shirts, replace your Cape Cod WASP-y Barbie doll with an authentic cloth slave doll and buy your tickets for a “Famous Sites in Confederate History” bus tour.
Virginia needs money -- remember those secondary education budget cuts? -- and tourists will eat this up.
No matter that in his original proclamation, McDonnell left out any mention of slavery, ignoring it altogether for not being "significant" enough.
No matter that, for many Virginians, the mere sight of a Confederate flag has come to symbolize hatred, racism and backwards thinking.
No matter that study of the Civil War is already a critical part of every American and Virginia state history course taught in Virginia public schools.
It is apparently more important for McDonnell to use his gubernatorial bully pulpit as a way to put a price tag on a part of our state’s history that, frankly, deserves to be remembered as a time of human rights violations and terror-driven hate crimes, not a romanticized, museum-ready, Gone With the Wind-esque time of Southern belles and dashing Dixie soldiers.
It is apparently more important for McDonnell to whore out our state than to use his executive power to do positive things for his constituents.
McDonnell does not represent Virginians who fall outside narrow definitions of normalcy. Since his inauguration, he has used executive power to remove LGBT Virginians from state anti-discrimination provisions and to make it harder for former felons to register to vote.
It's time that our state government represent the majority of Virginians, not just narrowly focused special interest groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans who lobbied for this declaration.
It’s time for McDonnell and his supporters to wake up, to realize that the Virginia we live in today is one rich with diversity that deserves to be studied and celebrated from perspectives other than those of white, heterosexual men.
Jake Robert Nelson is the Co-Editor in Chief and a staff columnist for the DSJ. His views do not necessarily represent those of the entire staff.
