Confederate Statue of Robert E. Lee, for anyone curious.

When was this?

Too long ago. 2023.

https://www.npr.org/2023/10/26/1208603609/confederate-general-robert-e-lee-monument-melted-down-charlottesville-virginia

I figured it could not have been under the Trump admin.

TY, that was exactly my queston!

B-b-but what if we end up needing our old racist shit some day?

"Confederate," my ass! It wasn't commissioned until 1917 (source), which means it was nothing more than bullshit "lost cause" propaganda from the day it was sculpted.

It's still a statue to a Confederate. Doesn't mean it was made by the Confederacy.

So statue of Confederate and not Confederate statue

Symantics

Well yes, the semantic difference is exactly what the other commentator mentions. And I agree with them. It makes a big difference if something is a historic artefact from a certain time or a much later artefact about a certain time.

The point is, it's not a legitimate war memorial because those would've been installed (or at least planned) sooner after the war.

That's, not really true. Especially with the kind of war. That's like saying that the German people would have planned Nazi memorial. They were the losing side. I'm not defending the statue, it's shitty, and we all know why they built it. And I'm fucking glad they destroyed it. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a legitimate war memorial for racists to a loser.

Look, I'm from Atlanta. I'm going to be a little vague so as to try to not dox myself, but for both geographic and personal acquaintance reasons I'm more familiar with civil war monuments than most. I know the difference between legitimate ones put up to mark the spot where something historically-significant happened and illegitimate ones put up way fucking after the fact to harass black people for getting 'uppity' about civil rights, so don't try to "well ackchyually" me.

Oh man. I'm glad I reread that. I thought it said "Surrenders to the French" at first.

The French know what to do with aristocrats.

They all are shirt and put up to harass black people when of up to honor the Confederacy.