Of statues and icons and other transparent pretenses

Jun 27, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The caption was remarkable, “BET founder Robert Johnson slams protesters for toppling Confederate statues” (NY Post June 26). He described them as “borderline anarchists” and took the courageous position that such public actions mean “absolutely nothing” for Black Americans. Truer words could not have been said, and I wished that more voices of similar stature, both Black and all other pigments, could have been a part of the chorus disagreeing honestly and bluntly.
For what is raging in America and Europe from Mt. Rushmore and its iconic figures to London and its slave traders is too much of the pretensive, shaded with too much righteous indignation, characterized by the mindlessness of mobs, and lacking in any persuasive power. At least, that is how these outpouring appear to me: these substantial overdoses of visible hypocrisy. I say so for several reasons, which cover in short order.
There is some justification for bringing down some statues, given the soaring definitions of current truths and awakenings. Some took Black concubines (most likely unwilling ones) and were slave owners and part of that great American Bible: the US Constitution; it is one I hold high. By such standards prevailing, most of the Founding Fathers, and every street and road and whatever else would have to be renamed, maybe even remade. For what could be more heinous than classifying slaves as a fraction of a whole human being? Then there is the Julian calendar; or anything named after the Spanish conquistadores, who virtually exterminated the Native Indian population of the Americas. Or what about the Roman Catholic Church (of which I am member) and its partnership with Castilian monarchs, which provided the opening for men like Bartolomeo and others to bring Jesus to the heathen. Coming closer to home, do I dare to identify and knock down Houston, the Texas oil capital and its machinations that impact us Guyanese so much here, since it is named after someone the Mexicans loathe more than revere?
If I come here and dare some more and say do the same thing with anything named after men like LFS Burnham and CB Jagan, then does make me a condoner and upholder? I say leave them alone, whether here or Martin Luther King and his peccadilloes or Mohandas Gandhi and his expressed utterances on race and caste. In our haste towards joining the mob in exercises of political correctness, and holiness suddenly discovered, we lose sight of the bigger picture, wherever we may be. For all of these men named by me, and more of them, did much good, despite their human weaknesses.
As the pretenders and hypocrites rail and wreck this and that, the bigger setbacks sail on serenely. Setbacks that wound and neutralize Title VII of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act, from which so much flowed and followed: opportunity, education, immigration, and employment. How many of those protesting and breaking public symbols would like to have as neighbours in their pristine suburban communities, the same people of colour, who get sucked into the madness? Have as neighbours in their high corporate offices? To both of these I can attest to a limited extent.
But while the bigger existential challenges take shape, the easy and convenient physical is mobbed and smashed. Just the other day, Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, succeeded in reshaping the US Federal Courts along more conservative lines; it is whiter, younger, righter. By the latter, I mean right wing, and all that that promises. All that is needed now is a ‘law and order’ president and the goose of minorities would effectively be burnt to an unrecognizable blob. Prime candidates are continuing rollbacks and dilutions of equal opportunity, immigration protections, and crime control. Others can highlight abortion, but in that I have passing interest only.
I am concerned about the things I pinpointed because I have six siblings who live in the US along with their now adult children; I have friends left behind; and I have colleagues that I remember, and how they have been pushed around and their dreams smashed. Of course, as I write, I recognize that it is of distant leaves falling in the deep forest, when all in this nation know of nothing else, listen for only newer determinations about declaration, jurisdiction, and what valid and credible means, or should mean.
We focus energies and hurl ourselves at public conveniences. In the meantime, our house rots from the inside and from the soul outward.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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