Lowell (Michigan) Ledger Opinion Piece (2017)

               In 2008, I wrote a letter to the City Council requesting the name on the Showboat be changed from ‘Robert E Lee.’  It fell on deaf ears.  The time was not right.

               On August 14, 2017, I posted a petition on Change.org demanding the immediate removal of ‘Robert E Lee.’  Three days later supporters numbered over one thousand.  I regret it took a domestic terrorist attack to create the opportunity to remove a racist’s name from public space, but the time was right.  ‘Robert E Lee’ came off the Lowell Showboat on Friday, August 18^th. 

               I wish to address some objections to the removal of ‘Robert E Lee.’  First, is the sentiment that people always called it the ‘Lowell Showboat,’ so it doesn’t matter.  To these folks, I say the Showboat is still the Showboat just without Confederate representation.  Then there are the misguided revisionists proclaiming Robert E Lee deserves recognition for his faith and military experience.  To be blunt, the Confederacy was built on the notion that white people were justified in enslaving other humans based on skin color.  Robert E Lee fought to defend this institutional violence and deserves no respect.  Finally, comes the voices echoing the president’s claim that today it’s Confederate monuments but tomorrow it’s Washington and Jefferson.  To this I suggest only education and critical honesty.  Do we value these men’s political legacies more than their violence towards others? 

I’ve heard some people recollect the song ‘Waiting for the Robert E Lee” – a song sang on the banks of the Flat River as the Showboat returned to dock, but there’s something insidious at play here in the same vein as ‘Make America Great Again.’  To ‘Wait for Robert E Lee’ sounds like a euphemism for ‘The South will Rise Again,’ and to turn the clock back on America in order to make it ‘great again’ is to overturn the victories of the abolitionists, civil rights leaders, labor activists and LGBTQ people.  Some white people may claim I’m distorting the message, but that argument is predicated on their white privilege – their exemption from being on the receiving end of America’s violent past and present.  For people of color, ‘Waiting for Robert E Lee’ means waiting for a white supremacist.

By removing the name of a racist from a public space in Lowell, the community has affirmed itself to be a welcoming place for all people. 

(There's a lot more to be said here, but for now, I'll leave it at this.) Originally published by the Lowell Ledger.