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By now you have heard about Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell trying to erase history to make things nice and pretty when talking about Confederates and the Civil War.
I just don't know how one can think of the Civil War and not think of slavery. I mean, I get it. I can see conversations that don't include slavery, but the folks who say it wasn't about slavery at all, are a bunch of morons.
It's more alarming not because it's just insensitive, but because it's part of a growing problem in this country, and that's revisionist and or exclusionist history.
I knew when I went through my textbooks in school that a lot of shit was missing, and a lot of shit was dolled up (I see you, Texas). Luckily, I came from a wise enough household where taking learning into your own hands was key and highly encouraged (if not mandatory at times).
Unfortunately, many households in America these days are only focused on letting their kids pick the hottest gadgets and creating Facebook pages; shit that's highly unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.
Had we not had folks to call foul, this little proclamation of his would've gone unchecked by a vast number of people.
Personally, including slavery into the Civil War is not good enough. Slavery is what made this country an industrial great and enabled it to become a first world country, and not just a failed experiment. Slavery and forced labor (and I mean not just Blacks, but Asians, Mexicans and even European immigrants from the poorer countries and backgrounds) did all the work while a vast number of folks did little if nothing. We should be talking about that whenever we discuss our country's journey to where it is now.
As for McDonnell, wishful thinking, homie.
