Gone with the wind
15th May 2017 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
By now, you might be scratching or shaking your head after hearing New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu move away from a promise he made months ago to establish a panel to look at other potential “nuisance monuments” and determine whether there were other statues and memorials across the Crescent City that might need to removed from public spaces. After the recent threats of violence and hateful signs and emails from Confederate monument supporters that promise appears to be “Gone With The Wind.”
He was very clear late last week when he told reporters that from the beginning he was only talking about the Battle of Liberty Place monument, and statues commemorating Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate Generals P.G.T. Beauregard and Robert E. Lee.
That will likely change the minds of some Black folks in New Orleans who had begun to believe that this mayor wasn’t as calculating and self-serving as some of his staunchest critics have said he is. The fog is lifting and people are beginning to see that while it is so nice to have witnessed the removal of the Liberty Place monument and the Jefferson Davis statue, without a commitment to finish the work and address other racially offensive monuments, school names and street names that honor avowed white supremacists and supporters of slavery and racial oppression, it was all simply a hollow gesture.
One has to wonder why the Landrieu administration set out to bring down the four statues. Was it to breathe new life into his fading political career or mesmerize gullible Black voters ahead of a potential campaign for Orleans Parish Sheriff or U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond’s congressional seat?
Was it to distract voters from some changes being put in place before he leaves City Hall?
Was it an effort to silence his critics and prove to himself and others how good he has been to the residents of this majority-Black city?
The truth will come out soon enough. All we have to do is “stay woke.”
In the meantime, the mayor is sadly mistaken if he thinks Take ‘Em Down Nola, community activists and justice advocates are going to stop pushing for the removal of these other racially offensive monuments, school names and street names just because Landrieu says he is done.
We still have to be slapped in the face with the statue of Justice E.D. White, who made it very clear how he feels about Black people, every time we enter the La. Supreme Court Building.
We still have to deal with the John McDonogh statue at Lafayette Square and look at the “iconic” statue of President Andrew Jackson, who owned Black slaves and advocated genocide as a weapon to reduce the population of Native Americans.
It’s bad enough having to travel along Claiborne Avenue and reflect on the way La. Gov. William C.C. Claiborne used the 1811 slave revolt and the fear and anger it inspired in whites to push his own political agenda. It’s even worse to hear some of our white brethren get sentimental and nostalgic about the Cabildo in the French Quarter, even though we know that this was the place that captured Blacks were held captive awaiting “trials” for their role in the 1811 slave revolt and knowing that some of those murdered Blacks’ heads were placed on pikes in the area that is now called Jackson Square after they were killed.
There is always something there to remind us.
One of the more insulting developments to come out of this whole dust-up over the Confederate monuments has been an effort by some to try to strong-arm the City of New Orleans into keeping these racially offensive monuments in public places by threatening to organize a boycott of the city. Essentially, these folks are saying that the City needs to continue to ignore the constitutional rights of its Black residents and whites who are also calling for the removal of these offensive monuments
In the minds of some, a steady flow of tourism dollars is a small price to pay for the dignity of the Black people of this city. Never mind that nothing ever changes for the masses of Black people in this city. They continue to find themselves being undereducated a and miseducated in a severely underfunded and overcrowded public school system and take dead-end jobs in the tourism or service industry or engage in illegal activities that promise nothing but death or mass incarceration.
At least, the powers that be get to continue making money by marketing the good old days in the land of cotton where good times are not forgotten.
Antebellum Disney is real, ladies and gentlemen. Just ask those who are paid very little to change bedsheets, open doors, drive horse-drawn carriages or shuck oysters every day.
And now that he has given his public image a major makeover by freeing the slaves in the City That Care Forgot, how does the mayor plan to spend the rest of his days at City Hall?
Expanding opportunities for contractors of color in the City’s public bidding process? Ending overtime pay abuse at the Sewerage & Water Board? Highlighting the shortcomings of his political enemies? Raising awareness of the pressing need for criminal justice reform? Ending the reign of terror that the Recovery School District has been wreaking on struggling families who can’t afford a private school education? Getting ready for his final Essence Music Festival Empowerment Seminar performance as mayor? Brushing up on his ability to wobble and two-way pocky way before the tricentennial celebration?
Only heaven knows,
When he is long gone, many of us will still be in the trenches fighting for justice, equity and equal protection under the law like there is no tomorrow.
All power to the people.◊
