Imagine being a Black person, walking around a public park, seeing a statue of Jefferson Davis, and someone proudly saying, “My great-great-great-grandfather was a slave owner, and we should respect our history!”
Of course, it’s insane and shouldn’t happen. Yet, the U.S. has thousands of Confederate symbols and markers still in existence.
Resolute atonement, which would help Black people smoothly transition into white society, has never been forthcoming.
In Germany, one can walk around public parks without seeing a statue of Hitler.
Germany repented, with extensive financial, legal and political atonement for the Holocaust and Nazi crimes. No Nazi monuments, but thousands of small bronze placards identify locations of Nazi atrocities against Jews. By law, schoolchildren must be taught about Nazi inhumanity.
Germans who want to forget their cruel history can’t.
Americans who want to remember their cruel history can.
Gerald Staack
Former Santa Clarita resident
Wilmington, North Carolina
