In the past I would be blogging about each monument controversy or issue regarding the Confederacy. Now there are so many monuments going down and Confederate symbols being removed I am overwhelmed. Also, what really do I have to offer in commentary? They are going down without really any opposition. I am somewhat stunned by it all. I think maybe they overlooked this and I find they haven't, maybe there overlooked that, and I find they haven't. There is stuff I never heard of or I had forgotten about and it is being dealt with.
One of my activities is to track how Breitbart reports on contested history, monuments, historical memory, etc and I have a fairly comprehensive set of Breitbart articles filed away. But the problem is that it is overwhelming me. I print them out in the morning, some more around noon, and then in the evening and staple them and then hand write their date on them so I can organize them and find them easily. I have selected Breitbat since they represent the ideology of the White House and they seem to comprehensively cover the issues of interest.
Also, I am helping out local activists. One set wants to rename Lamar St. in Dallas to Botham Jean Boulevard. The other wants to rename Woodrow Wilson High School in the Dallas school district.
And I am on to something really huge concerning Dallas. It will rewrite a part of American history and explode the establishment view of the Dallas past. Taking a lot of time, but it won't be long before I am finished. Maybe in August.
So I have been really busy.
No doubt the school text books which pander to the Lost Cause and have uncritical accounts of thee Confederacy a free pass will not be acccepted for much longer.
With the upcoming elections it is likely that Confederate monuments in national parks will be subject to review.
I still have a few tasks left to bring down the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). Some churches still pander to them, JROTC is working with them, and the UDC is still giving gifts at U.S. Military academies. All this will need action. But the SCV and UDC memberships are disappearing with age anyways just like the Civil War Round tables. It remains to be seen that I need to do much at all. I might want to focus more on personal things now that the neo-Confederate movement is crashing and coming to an end.
I am sure there will be odds and ends to do in 2021, but this is bringing up what will be next for me. After Neo-Confederacy is demolished what do I do?
It might be argued there will be odds and ends to follow up on. However, the few counties or cities with Confederate monuments will likely have their own local groups dealing with it and I won't need to be involved.
As I have said in earlier blogs, the few places which still have Confederate monuments will increasingly be seen as backward and creepy. When there are a couple hundred Confederate monuments in a state, any one monument won't cause much comment or stand out. When there are only five left or three, they will be in the news as the last Confederate monumnts in the state and the source of never ending news as the struggle continues over them and gives the locations a really bad repubation.
For a city or county the fact that they have become that creepy place in movies, will sink in when they lose competition for a processing or manufacturing plant or distribution depot or some facility. It will sink in when businesses there have difficulty in attracting talent and holding talent.
So the remaining monumentts will likely take care of themselves.
I think by the end of 2021 I will have the neo-Confederates out of the establishment also
So what I am doing and I am already transitioning to it, is work on the racialization of the landscape as a whole and not restricted to only Confederate items or even Confederate and slavery related items, but everything.
I have done a first draft theorization about landscape reparations. I am theorizing about street names. I am developing a set of tactics.
Anti-Neo-Confederate may become fairly inactive, not now, and not soon, but at some point I am going to be working on the issues of secession a lot, especially when the secession movements take off in response to Trump not being re-elected. And I will be working on deracializing the landscape. Those might be new blogs, and this blog will remain for the record and not be very active. I haven't decided that is the plan, but it might be the plan in the future.
So in conclusion, I am somewhat stunned, and after I wrap up dealing with the neo-Confederates I am going to move on to new challanges.
UPDATE:
The story is about a giant corporation doesn't want to locate major facility in town with Confederate monument. You can be assured that every chamber of commerce at some point will be thinking about this or cases like this. Every board member of some government economic panel for development will be hinking about this.