Ok this is yet another Civil War-related thread, but the question at the end of this post has not really been answered before IIRC.
First off, I want to point out that I find the politics of how different groups of people choose to remember the Civil War and Reconstruction fascinating and how this continues to affect race relations today in United States.
Whites who are extremely biased in favor of the Union try to emphasize the racism behind the Confederacy, while ignoring the hypocrisy of the Union during the Civil War and then during Reconcstruction -- enfranchise blacks in Southern states, but exclude Chinese, Amerindians, and Japanese from equal rights. These same people also point out every atrocity some Confederate soldiers have committed against black civilians and black soldiers, while forgetting the atrocities that some white Union soldiers have committed.
Another group includes those whites who are extremely biased in favor of the Confederacy to the extent that they minimalize slavery as an insignificant issue of antebellum America leading up to the Civil War. They also over emphasize the issue of states rights, ignoring the fact that states rights was used as a way to preserve slavery, and later, to revoke the equal rights given to blacks during Reconstruction. This extreme biased memory became the "Lost Cause" mythology.
A third group includes blacks who embrace the emancipationist memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction to an extreme extent, so as to put Lincoln on the pedestal reserved for demi-gods. These blacks want to forget that the Emancipation Proclamation was really a half-step, war-time strategic measure. They also want to ignore the minority of black slaves who were loyal to plantation owners during the Civil War.
Unfortunately, as a result of the "Lost Cause" mythology that developed from the 1880s, white Northerners reconciled with white Southerners on the South's terms, in regards to race relations. They embraced one another through the fraternal spirit of white supremacy.
Having pointed out the three, broad, main extreme biases, I have a question about the "Lost Cause" mythology and its ideology. If those who believe in the "Lost Cause" mythology claim that it is never based on racism, why has it always been the case that the overwhelming majority of blacks -- North and South -- have never venerated the historical Confederacy to this day??
This, I believe, is a question that has never been answered in past Civil War-related threads.
First off, I want to point out that I find the politics of how different groups of people choose to remember the Civil War and Reconstruction fascinating and how this continues to affect race relations today in United States.
Whites who are extremely biased in favor of the Union try to emphasize the racism behind the Confederacy, while ignoring the hypocrisy of the Union during the Civil War and then during Reconcstruction -- enfranchise blacks in Southern states, but exclude Chinese, Amerindians, and Japanese from equal rights. These same people also point out every atrocity some Confederate soldiers have committed against black civilians and black soldiers, while forgetting the atrocities that some white Union soldiers have committed.
Another group includes those whites who are extremely biased in favor of the Confederacy to the extent that they minimalize slavery as an insignificant issue of antebellum America leading up to the Civil War. They also over emphasize the issue of states rights, ignoring the fact that states rights was used as a way to preserve slavery, and later, to revoke the equal rights given to blacks during Reconstruction. This extreme biased memory became the "Lost Cause" mythology.
A third group includes blacks who embrace the emancipationist memory of the Civil War and Reconstruction to an extreme extent, so as to put Lincoln on the pedestal reserved for demi-gods. These blacks want to forget that the Emancipation Proclamation was really a half-step, war-time strategic measure. They also want to ignore the minority of black slaves who were loyal to plantation owners during the Civil War.
Unfortunately, as a result of the "Lost Cause" mythology that developed from the 1880s, white Northerners reconciled with white Southerners on the South's terms, in regards to race relations. They embraced one another through the fraternal spirit of white supremacy.
Having pointed out the three, broad, main extreme biases, I have a question about the "Lost Cause" mythology and its ideology. If those who believe in the "Lost Cause" mythology claim that it is never based on racism, why has it always been the case that the overwhelming majority of blacks -- North and South -- have never venerated the historical Confederacy to this day??
This, I believe, is a question that has never been answered in past Civil War-related threads.
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