Hate Crimes Go Both Ways

Hate crimes go both ways. People can be persecuted for their race, ethnicity, religion, national ancestry or even political beliefs. This case involves the last two classifications right here in my home state of Missouri.

On October 11, 2011 a Civil War monument in Cape Girardeau, honouring Missouri's confederate veterans, was vandalised in an unusual way. Typically, anti-Confederate vandalism usually includes references to racial issues, citing the Ku Klux Klan or the Nazis, displaying the perpetrator's ignorance of history. In this case however, the perpetrator's vandalism referenced pro-Union and anti-Confederate slurs. This is highly unusual, as it demonstrates at least a modest level of historical knowledge, and a clear pro-Union political agenda.

In response, Clint Lacy, a Dixie patriot, decided to protest this act of vandalism with a confederate naval jack in one hand, and a home made sign that read "Stop the Hate" in the other. He drew some considerable attention, not just locally, but nationally, and even internationally. Good job Clint! With just three words and a flag, you encapsulated the entire message of the modern Dixie independence movement. All across the Southland of Dixie, there are millions of Southerners who love the symbols of our Confederate heritage and the political message of independence they convey. Yet at the same time there is not a racist bone in their body. A considerable number are even black. Granted, in border states like Missouri, this is seldom realised.

What I find striking about this whole affair is the nature of the protests against Southern heritage. While protesting next to the monument that was vandalised with pro-Union slogans, Clint Lacy reported that many people drove by, including many blacks, and he had no trouble from them at all. The only negative response he got was from what he reported to be wealthy looking white men in a Cadillac, who yelled obscenities at him and shouted pro-Union anti-Confederate slogans. This is all very interesting.

This recent episode in Missouri is just the tip of the iceberg. All across the Southland of Dixie, and even as far north as Gettysburg Pennsylvania (deep in Union country), Confederate war monuments are being vandalised, Confederate cemeteries are being desecrated, and the symbols (particularly flags) of the Confederacy are being attacked. Now this is nothing new in particular. This sort of thing has been going on for the last thirty years or so. However, in the last five years (since about 2007) is has increased in intensity and frequency. What is even more interesting is that it is taking on a distinctively pro-Union and anti-Confederate tone that is atypical of the usual ignorant race slurs. Something different is happening here, and it is something significant.

"It's quite offensive to have that there," said E. Kevin Lollar, an attorney who is also director of development for Frederick's Housing Authority. "I realize that it's a part of history, but so were a lot of other things that we eventually let go of."

Lollar has joined forces with the head of the local NAACP and the leader of United Latinos of Greater Frederick to prompt a public discussion about the bust. The trio hopes that conversation will convince the city's mayor and aldermen to put Taney's likeness in what they believe is a more appropriate spot; the local museum is one possibility.

The group is looking to capitalize on the General Assembly's passage this year of a resolution expressing "profound regret" for Maryland's role in slavery. Taney's decision, meanwhile, was lambasted here last month by Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who said it "threw the country on its ear."

In the 1857 majority opinion, Taney ruled that Dred Scott, a Missouri slave who had traveled with his master into free territory and wanted his freedom made permanent, should remain enslaved. The language Taney used in describing black Americans forever tarred his legal legacy - despite his nearly 30 years as chief justice. He wrote that the Founding Fathers regarded blacks as "beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

While respectful of the ire that Taney's writing still sparks in many today, not everyone thinks a potentially divisive debate about Taney's 150-year-old decision - and more broadly about race - would be good for Frederick.

"It's a huge battle - I'd rather spend our time and energy dealing with issues that are going to help people right now," said Mayor William J. Holtzinger, a Republican who was elected in 2005. "Moving or not moving that bust isn't going to do a thing to help people."

Alderman Alan E. Imhoff, a Republican who has lived in Frederick for 23 years, said he doesn't see "any real reason to remove [the bust]."

"What has passed has passed, and it's all part of the fabric of our American life," Imhoff said. "Chief Justice Taney was more than just one issue in the life of the country."