So, there’s apparently a viral photo circulating the interwebs that purportedly shows a Confederate-monument defender embracing a Black Lives Matter supporter ... and I have some serious questions.
On Friday the Virginia Flaggers, a group committed to defending Confederate monuments and memorials, stationed “Monument Guards” around a monument in Lynchburg, Va., in response to a call by online hacktivist group Anonymous for people to tear down some 11 monuments that evening, KOCO reports.
Somewhere during that time period, an unidentified person supposedly caught one of the flaggers and a Black Lives Matter supporter hugging, and the Virginia Flaggers shared the story in a Facebook post:
Late in the evening, one of the monument guards noticed this woman, who later identified as a black lives matter supporter, trembling and shaking with fear. He said he could tell she honestly feared them. He walked up to her, arms outstretched, said ‘we are not KKK’ and she grabbed him and wouldn’t let go. He explained that they were here to stop all of this and prevent another Charlottesville. He said ‘If I were KKK would I hold you like this?’ and she said “NO”.
I’ll give you a break here for you to pause and hurl.
OK. Now we’re back. The post continued:
They talked for some time and he said we have to work together to stop this mess. She wept and thanked him over and over for coming over to her and they parted ways with new understanding. Stories like this one will never make the national media and don’t fit the narrative that the politicians in Charlottesville, Richmond, Portsmouth, and other localities are using to push their liberal political and social monument removal agendas, but it serves as a reminder to all of us that God can use the most troubling times to shine light and truth, even in near darkness.
Maybe I’ve gotten cynical as the virulent display of racism has continued on in this country, but I fail to recognize the point or the purpose of this post. Do the flaggers want a cookie? Do they want recognition for allegedly not being racists or members of the Ku Klux Klan (although they still clearly support actual pillars—read: statues/monuments—of white supremacy and segregation)? Is it just me, guys?!
Don’t get me started on the “Would I hold you like this?” rhetoric. Hugging/kissing/fraternizing/having sexy times with a person of a different race, religion, creed, ethnicity, background—what have you—does not make you invulnerable to -isms and phobias. Fetishization is real. As is having that one “friend” you always bring up in conversation as proof that you are an enlightened being.
This whole post makes me feel like I need a scalding-hot shower, and I am left with more questions than answers.
Read more at KOCO.