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Nikole McGee

Mrs. Stanford

ENG 231

10 September 2017

Monuments or Memorials?

Confederate “monuments” in America have recently been causing controversy across the

nation. Gary Shapiro gives his two sense about this controversial topic in an article that he titles

“The Meaning of Our Confederate ‘Monuments’”. This article can be found in the section

labeled “The Opinion Pages” in the New York Times. Confederacy has been a topic of argument

for many years now, and, for the most part, confederate practices are now widely unaccepted, as

it has been observed within communities. Shapiro’s article introduces a different perspective of

the confederate “monuments” in America, including statues and shrines of confederate leaders.

The title of Shapiro’s article (“The Meaning of Our Confederate ‘Monuments’”) is misleading as

it claims to ​define ​the purpose of the so-called monuments, however the article merely attempts

to convey Shapiro’s personal views as facts, which defeats the purpose of the article and

damages the credibility of the author.

Shapiro begins his article with an introduction of the confederate controversy by saying:

“The United States is beginning to realize that it suffers from deferred maintenance of its own

history.” (Shapiro "The Meaning of Our Confederate ‘Monuments’" 2017). He then continues on

to explain that confederate monuments are being removed in Virginia and New Orleans. While

he does the right thing, by introducing the issue at hand before getting into the bulk of the

reading, he does so very poorly. Instead of explaining why the controversy exists and what the
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controversy is, Shapiro only outlines its effects. Any reader with no previous knowledge of the

history of Richmond, Virginia, or New Orleans would have no desire to continue reading

Shapiro’s article after the first paragraph, as he makes no attempt to engage or properly inform

the audience. Abraham Lincoln would be ashamed.

Shapiro’s next step is to finally give some background information about these

monuments, albeit, not much. The monuments that he mentions were supposedly “...meant to

legitimize and dignify the white supremacist regime that had taken hold in Virginia.”, however,

now that the idea of superior races is (for the most part) frowned upon, Americans are having a

hard time coming to a decision about how to handle the monuments. While Americans debate

about whether to tear down, move, or preserve the statues, Shapiro considers changing their

initial purpose. This can be done in a multitude of ways: changing the name of the street that the

statues sit upon from Monument Avenue to something less controversial, adding descriptions of

each statue to explain their historical context, and more. The entirety of Shapiro’s article seems

to be in disarray, but all of his research attempts to support this one main point: Rather than

getting rid of the artwork, Americans can use it to remind themselves of past mistakes, and avoid

them in the future.

Ancient ruins, historical documents and historical photos are preserved when they are

discovered as a way to document history, regardless of what they may represent. This being said,

just because America’s views oppose confederate views doesn’t mean historical artifacts should

be destroyed because people don’t agree with them. In the next section of his article, Shapiro

inaccurately compares the confederate monuments to the vietnam memorial, basically claiming

that the monuments should now be considered memorials. While he is correct that the statues
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should no longer be considered monuments, giving them the title “memorial” still gives power to

the ideals that the monuments represent. When a memorial is created, it is to honor an event in

history or the dead; while the roles that confederate leaders played in history should be

remembered, they shouldn’t necessarily be honored, because that would create more controversy

among those who disagree with the views of the white supremacist regime. Calling the statues

memorials will eliminate one problem, only to give rise to another, the best way to avoid

controversy is to consider the statues and shrines to be historical artifacts and nothing more.

The confederate statues only explain one side of the historical context during the civil

war era, Shapiro suggests that the other side could be explained if only we gave it the same

representation. Shapiro ends his article by suggesting,

“The wide green medians on the avenue provide open space for new sculptures of those

who resisted slavery, the Confederacy, the institution of Jim Crow. Representative or

anonymous victims of white supremacy could be remembered. Perhaps America can begin

to become great by acknowledging and confronting its past with thoughtful monuments,

memorials and critical interventions.” (Shapiro "The Meaning of Our Confederate

‘Monuments’" 2017)

This compromise is one that preserves the historical artifacts on Monument Avenue without

giving representation to the negative ideologies that were honored when they were originally

built. Shapiro has done an awful job of introducing his suggestions for eliminating the

controversy that has been occurring, however his suggestions themselves almost hit the nail on

its head. Adding to and preserving the confederate statues may both be very effective, but

changing their title to memorials rather than monuments is counterproductive as it may start
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another conflict. The title “The Meaning of Our Confederate ‘Monuments’” does not accurately

describe the main goal of the article it represents, it actually conveys the almost the opposite

meaning. Shapiro’s article is all about how the meaning of our confederate monuments have

changed, and how they should be adapted to fit into our new society. While he represents his

ideas in a confusing manner, Shapiro is most likely the closest to solving the issue at hand.
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Works Cited

Shapiro, Gary. “The Meaning of Our Confederate ‘Monuments’.” ​The New York Times​, 15 May

2017,

www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/opinion/the-meaning-of-our-confederate-monuments.html

. Accessed 12 Sept. 2017.