Oh my God, I can’t believe we are STILL talking about the racist ode to negroes-as-property that is the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee which continues to take up space in Richmond, Virginia’s Monument Avenue.
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It’s been a long journey to nowhere, y’all. At the beginning of last June, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam declared that “Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy” and announced plans to remove Lee’s statue along with that of other Confederate leaders because OH MY FREE-AT-LAST JESUS, THESE PEOPLE WERE TRAITORS WHO FOUGHT TO KEEP BLACK PEOPLE ENSLAVED!
Unfortunately, plans to remove the state’s shrine to cruel and lazy white people fell apart quickly as lawsuits from white supremacy enthusiasts started causing court-ordered injunctions to prevent its removal. The first suit was filed by a descendant of the couple who signed the deed over to the state giving it land for the “I heart Blacks and cotton” statue. The second was filed by “a group of five local residents” who argued that “Northam’s action violates the separation of powers and that the General Assembly must honor a resolution it passed in 1890 agreeing to care for the statue in perpetuity,” the Washington Post reports.
To make a long story short—but not nearly as short as it would have been if they’d just throw that pro-oppression eyesore the fuck away already—both groups lost their cases, but the injunctions were put in place anyway because, apparently, a lot of Virginians really love commemorating the thing white people keep telling Black people to forget about because “the past is the past.”
Eventually Richmond Circuit Judge Bradley B. Cavedo—the same judge that ruled on the lawsuits and ordered the injunctions—eventually cleared the Lee statute for removal pending appeal. On Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court agreed to hear appeals from the two groups that just cannot get enough of their beloved racism statue.
From the Post:
State Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D), representing Northam, has petitioned the state Supreme Court for an expedited hearing in the appeal of the second case. In announcing Friday that it was granting an appeal, the court rejected a request from the plaintiffs to strike portions of the state’s argument.
It was unclear how quickly the court would take up the cases; no date has been set for hearings, and the plaintiffs have 15 days to post a bond to keep the matter moving forward.
Last month, state workers put fencing around the Lee statue so they could move quickly to take it down if the court rules in Northam’s favor.
“Attorney General Herring remains more committed than ever to removing this symbol of Virginia’s racist past from its place of prominence in our community, allowing Virginians to begin to heal and move forward to a more equitable future,” Herring’s spokeswoman, Charlotte Gomer, said in a statement, ABC 13 reports.
As ABC notes, Northam’s term as governor ends next January, and the way this thing is being dragged out, who TF knows if the statue will finally be removed while he’s still in office.
Ultimately, this is just a reminder that America’s racial awakening hasn’t awakened everyone. If people are fighting this hard to preserve the legacy of a man whose legacy was an attempt at preserving slavery, then it’s safe to say that post-racial America isn’t an America we’ll be seeing anytime soon.
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