Protests in the United States – The military is distancing itself from the old symbols – and TrumpDie US to argue about the handling of your racist heritage. A special role is played here by the military.Alan Cassidy from Washington0 comment Robert Lee is one of the many generals of the Confederate, which are dedicated to the southern monuments: “Black Lives Matter”activists in the Robert Lee Monument in Richmond (Virginia), on the Graffiti sprayed have been.Photo: Keystone
Henry Lewis Benning was a General in the Confederate army. Before the southern States broke away from the North and to the American civil war ensued, had Benning explained to the public what he thought of the abolition of slavery: He would rather suffer “famine and plague” than to have to experience how the Blacks gaining freedom.
Today, one of the largest military bases in the United States, according to Benning, is in the state of Georgia named to Fort Benning. Nine more bases carry the names of other officers and leaders of the Confederacy. All of these bases are in the States of the South, who have analysed its history as a slavery regime and the bastions of racism only reluctantly or incomplete.
“Removed the names of the traitors,”
The criticism of it is older than the Anti-racism protests, which have entered the country after the violent death of the African-American George Floyd. But now the requirement is to rename the vertices, louder and louder. And above all, they comes from a new corner: from the military itself.
the former four-star General David Petraeus wrote in the magazine “the Atlantic”. A representative of the Pentagon had announced early this week that the Minister of defense Mark Esper and the top of the US army were open to a “non-partisan discussion” about it.
Charles Brown was confirmed by the Senate for the first time an African-American as commander-in-chief of the Air Force.
The military is under pressure to refer to racist structures and symbols in the ranks position. This relates to the traditionally poor representation of African-Americans in leadership positions: Although 19 percent of the active soldiers are Black, but only 9 percent of the officers, and only two of them hold the rank of four-star General.
After all, the US Senate this week, with Charles Brown for the first time an African-American as commander-in-chief of the Air Force confirmed. Also, he told how he had been discriminated against in his career.
the Confederate flag is forbidden
The subject but also things like the names of military bases or the display of the battle flag of the Confederacy, which there is in some places common. The marine corps has banned the now, the Navy wants to follow suit: Even on Souvenirs, the red Flag with the crossed blue bars and white stars is no longer to be seen.
Moreover, leading representatives of the military have turned out with strong words in the debate that America currently leads. “We must make no illusions that racism is very present in our country,” said Admiral Michael Gilday, and a lock of his Navy with.
The lot was more than Donald Trump had to say in recent days on the subject. The President ruled out on Wednesday categorically, military bases rename. His government will not pull the “even a consideration”, he tweeted: “Our history as the largest Nation in the world is not tampered with.”
apology from the chief of staff
The tensions that emerge between the President and the military, were on Thursday to be visible, as chief of staff General Mark Milley to the public for a performance on the page Trumps apologized. The President had last week, peaceful protesters in front of the White house wegprügeln to move then in front of the Church, and a Bible to uphold.
Milley had accompanied him here. “I shouldn’t have been there,” he said in a video message. His presence conveys the image of the military to intervene in domestic political Affairs.
Surprising decision of Nascar
The military is just one of the many places and institutions in which the United States negotiate their historical legacy with new force. In Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy, cracks protesters, a Statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from the Socket. In Washington, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the house of representatives called on, to remove all of the monuments in the capital of the Confederation in connection.
And then the surprising decision by Nascar to ban the Confederate flag on your car race there. The Motorsport originated in the southern States, and his overwhelmingly white followers are considered to be very conservative, and the reaction to the ban was in the right social media heavily. Also, this process shows: George Floyd’s death has sparked much. Where that leads, is not yet foreseeable.
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