为什么有些美国人还在搞内战

Why Some Americans Are Still Fighting the Civil War

General Robert E. Lee, who led the Confederate Army during the United States Civil War, died in 1870. But in some ways, he lives today.

Americans are having a heated debate about whether to remove statues of Lee and other Confederate heroes from public places. In comments to the press on Tuesday, President Donald Trump¹ said that by removing them, “You’re changing history. You’re changing culture.”

Trump did not explain what he meant by “culture.” But a recent poll of Americans found that 54% of Americans overall see Confederate statues as symbols of Southern pride.

The poll also found that about a quarter of Americans see the statues as a symbol of something else: racism².

Unlike any other country in the world…

The U.S. has at least 700 statues honoring the Confederacy across the country. They recall the U.S. Civil War of the 1860s.

In that conflict, 11 Southern slave-holding states withdrew from the Union. They formed their own government, called the Confederacy.

The Confederacy protected the rights of states to make their own laws, including those permitting slavery. At the time, 90 percent of black people in the U.S. were enslaved.

After four years of bitter fighting, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered and effectively ended the Civil War.

The Confederate states re-joined the Union. And, about three years later, the country approved an amendment³ to the Constitution that legally ended slavery across the country.

Minisha Sinha is a historian at the University of Connecticut. She says Americans’ monuments to the Confederacy are unusual for several reasons.

First, Sinha says, “unlike any other country in the world, the U.S. actually has statues commemorating⁴ people from the South who committed treason against the U.S. government.”

Second, she says, the Confederacy was based on the belief of white people’s superiority over black people. For example, the vice⁵ president of the Confederacy, Andrew Stephens, wrote, "Our new government is founded upon … the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.”

As a result, says Sinha, Confederate heroes are not innocuous markers of American history.

“In fact, these figures represent a short-lived nation that was in rebellion against the United States, and that really stood for slavery and white supremacy⁶.”

The Confederacy in the 20th century

But in the decades following the Civil War, some Americans’ perceptions of the Confederacy changed.

In 1915, a woman writes why she has joined an organization called the Daughters of the Confederacy. The writer describes a Southern culture, or way of life, characterized by bravery, honor, glory, and lady-like behavior. She says she is honoring her ancestor’s struggle in the Civil War.

She writes, “I do not consider the cause which he held so dear to be lost or forgotten. Rather, I am extremely proud of the fact that he was a part of it and was numbered among some of the greatest and bravest men which any such cause ever produced.”

Historian James Oliver Horton was a professor at George Washington University. He says historians in the later 20th century find overwhelming evidence that slavery really was a central cause of the Civil War.

In his essay The Civil War Remembered, Horton writes, “When southern whites in the 19th century spoke⁷ of the ‘southern way of life,’ they referred to a way of life founded on white supremacy and supported by the institution of slavery.”?

Most Confederate monuments were not built after the Civil War

Modern historians find additional evidence that public statues of Confederate forces are more complicated than they might appear.

Notably⁸, most Confederate monuments were not built immediately after the Civil War. The majorities were built at the turn of the 20th century and in the 1950s, when some white Americans were protesting strongly against increasing the civil rights of black Americans.

Historian April Holm at the University of Mississippi writes, “Most are not ‘Confederate-era’ monuments, as I have seen them called. These are primarily Jim Crow-era monuments. “Jim Crow” refers to laws and sanctions aimed at ethnic⁹ discrimination, especially against African-Americans. As an era, it lasted from the late 1800s to the mid-1950s.

This dispute is not new

The dispute over whether to remove Confederate monuments from public places has flared¹¹ up many times in Americans’ public conversation.

In 2015, lawmakers in South Carolina – which had been the first state to withdraw from the Union in 1860 – voted to remove the Confederate battle flag from its Capitol grounds.

The decision followed the shooting of nine African-American people in a South Carolina church by a young white man. The shooter said he was motivated by his anger at African-Americans.

Polls this week suggest very few Americans who want to preserve Confederate memorials support extreme racist¹² views.

One woman who rallied last weekend to keep the statue of Robert E. Lee in a public park told the New York Times that she and her friends were simply “gun-loving defenders¹³ of free speech … who had no interest in standing¹⁴ with Nazis¹⁵ or white supremacists.”

What might be more important in America's different perceptions of the Confederate monuments is political affiliation¹⁶. Democrats¹⁷ are about evenly divided on keeping or removing the statues.

But a majority of Republicans – the party to which President Donald Trump belongs – strongly favor keeping the statues in place.

Interestingly, one opponent of memorials to the Confederacy is Robert E. Lee himself. Several years after the Civil War, he warned against raising monuments to the Confederacy. He wrote, "I think it wiser not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate¹⁸ the marks of civil strife¹⁹.”

I'm Caty Weaver²⁰.

Words in This Story

negro - n. old fashioned term to describe a black American. It is no longer used in modern American English.

innocuous - adj. not likely to offend

perception - n. the way you think about or understand something

flare¹⁰ up - v. to happen suddenly and unexpectedly

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

3 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

4 commemorating   

v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements. 他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The post office issued a series commemorating famous American entertainers. 邮局发行了一个纪念美国著名演艺人员的系列邮票。 来自互联网

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 supremacy   

n.至上；至高权力

参考例句：

• No one could challenge her supremacy in gymnastics.她是最优秀的体操运动员，无人能胜过她。
• Theoretically,she holds supremacy as the head of the state.从理论上说，她作为国家的最高元首拥有至高无上的权力。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

9 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

10 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。

11 Flared   

adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The match flared and went out. 火柴闪亮了一下就熄了。
• The fire flared up when we thought it was out. 我们以为火已经熄灭，但它突然又燃烧起来。

12 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

13 defenders   

n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者

参考例句：

• The defenders were outnumbered and had to give in. 抵抗者寡不敌众，只能投降。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• After hard fighting,the defenders were still masters of the city. 守军经过奋战仍然控制着城市。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

15 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 affiliation   

n.联系，联合

参考例句：

• There is no affiliation between our organization and theirs,even though our names are similar.尽管两个组织的名称相似，但我们之间并没有关系。
• The kidnappers had no affiliation with any militant group.这些绑架者与任何军事组织都没有紧密联系。

17 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 obliterate   

v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去

参考例句：

• Whole villages were obliterated by fire.整座整座的村庄都被大火所吞噬。
• There was time enough to obliterate memories of how things once were for him.时间足以抹去他对过去经历的记忆。

19 strife   

n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争

参考例句：

• We do not intend to be drawn into the internal strife.我们不想卷入内乱之中。
• Money is a major cause of strife in many marriages.金钱是造成很多婚姻不和的一个主要原因。

20 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。