Trump supporters love to challenge accusations of racism by pointing out the Democrats supported slavery and are, therefore, the real racists. Somehow, they can never explain then why Republican Trump supporters are so determined to honor those Democrats who supported slavery 150 years ago.
History repeats itself. I will be stepping off the dais today in protest of the Virginia Senate honoring Robert E. Lee. I’ll be thinking of this June 5, 1798 manumission document that freed my great-great-great grandfather Simon Fairfax from slavery in Virginia. #WeRiseTogether pic.twitter.com/tG0QB9hHdR
— Justin Fairfax (@FairfaxJustin) January 18, 2019
Virginia’s State Senate plans to honor Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Saturday in Richmond, Virginia, formerly the capital of the Confederacy, and the one lone black government official, Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, is the only government official who plans to speak out in protest of the event.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Fairfax explained the reasons behind his protest.
‘I believe there are certain people in history we should honor that way in the Senate . . . and I don’t believe that he is one of them. I think it’s very divisive to do what was done there, particularly in light of the history that we’re now commemorating — 400 years since the first enslaved Africans came to the commonwealth of Virginia.’
As if it wasn’t bad enough that the state of Virginia, a state with a 19 percent black population, still wants to honor a man who fought to keep black Americans enslaved, they celebrate the man during the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Making this particular time of the year about anything other than black Americans who fought so hard for their freedoms is nothing but a clear show of disrespect.
Twitter stood behind the Lieutenant Governor. Read some of their comments below:
Featured image via Flickr by Edward Kimmel under a Creative Commons license
