A couple of weeks ago, a protest at the University of North Carolina resulted in the toppling of “Silent Sam” a statue that stands at the university to commemorate Civil War era Confederate soldiers. A week later, another protest at the site resulted in police using mass pepper spray on the student population. Confederate monuments have been in the news quite a lot recently. Just over one year after the deadly tragedy in Charlottesville, the debate continues over whether or not monuments to the confederacy should be removed as they stand for racism, slavery and terrorism or preserved in the memory of history and heritage. This is an issue that is continuing to occur across the United States, and in particular in the South. It’s no surprise that we at VoxPopcast are going to fall on the side of “lets not be racist, mmkay?” but it’s probably worth thinking about just why are people attached to these statues anyway, and why are they so intimidating beyond simply “racism”? Katya and Mav are joined by UNC PhD candidate Emily Brennan-Moran, who’s research focuses on the construction of memories through commemorative media like these statues.
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Citations and Links:
- This episode’s Call for Comments
- Juliain Carr “Silent Sam” speech
- “Silent Sam Protests Turn ‘Intense’ At UNC, Crowd Pepper Sprayed Among WFMY News 2 Crews”
- “UNC Seeks Alternative Location for Silent Sam Confederate Statue”
- “Pittsburgh just took down ‘the most racist statue in America’”
- “A Virginia city eyed Pittsburgh’s controversial Stephen Foster statue — and says it’s not the only one”
- Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme
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