Last December, the City Council of New Orleans voted to take down four Confederate statues. The vote came after months of arguments and heated exchanges.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D-La) told the city leaders that it was time to step away from their racist history. He said:
“The time surely comes when (justice) must and will be heard. Members of the council, that day is today. The Confederacy, you see, was on the wrong side of history and humanity.”
Over the next several months, the four statues came down. That didn’t fully address the city’s racist past, however, and protestors gathered this past week to demand that one more be removed and placed in a museum.
The statue of President Andrew Jackson stands in the city’s iconic Jackson Square. Jackson was a general in the years after the Revolutionary War. He owned hundreds of slaves. He was also responsible for the relocation and resettlement of thousands of Native People in one of the most horrific acts in American History. It was known as the “Trail of Tears.”
A large group of protestors gathered in Jackson Square last week to demand that the statue of the offensive General be removed. Not everyone agreed with them, naturally.
David Duke, one of the most despicable characters in this country, came to defend the statue of Andrew Jackson.
David Duke is best known as the former “Grand Wizard” (seriously?) of the Ku Klux Klan. He is a famous white supremacist. He is an ass. He is a Trump supporter.
The Grand Wizard is running for Senate in Louisiana. He wants everyone to know that he supports one of the worst racists in the history of the country. Of course he does.
Duke took the microphone and said:
“I tell you one thing. It was built by the forefathers of the European Americans who created this country and who gave us our constitution. Who gave us our freedoms and they should not lose their rights and liberty in their own country. They should not have their statues taken down. They should not lose their culture of this society.”
Aside from the grammatical screw ups of this comment, the overt racism is disgusting.The protesters in the group were absolutely not having it. They started to shout. They wanted that racist asshole out of there.
“Racist, fascist, anti-gay! Right-wing bigot go away!”
You want to know the best part? After a while, when the crowd kept chanting and yelling, the crazy KKK nut cake had decided that he couldn’t take the heat. He left.
Take that, you Andrew Jackson loving bigot.
Featured image via Wikipedia.
