Forcing them to argue that washington had slaves is a step in the right direction. It is a crack in their jingoistic myth of the founding fathers. Theyre being forced to learn a bit of history thats been intentionally hidden. Next question; If most the founding fathers owned slaves, whats that mean? Whats that say about america? So slavery was an institution and treated as the norm?

Its messy but this is progress

One helped found this country.

Canadians don't have a cult of personality around our first Prime Minister the way Americans do around George Washington.

Canada was apparently founded on uniting white Europeans to eradicate the "savage" indigenous populations here.

So... founding the country can be overlooked to an extent if the person was otherwise an asshole.

I remember spending almost an hour reading some of the declarations of the states, and I remember Texas writing that they were given the right to own slaves by God, and that they will fight to defend that that right against anything 🙄. They couldn't have been more clear.

We really need to teach better in history class. THAT is where we need to stop removing things, not statues and dedications to traitors of the country

Did you miss the insane freakouts by conservatives related to critical race theory?? They refuse to allow history to be taught, it's not that we need to "do better" like we've made some mistakes, these are malicious purposeful actions.

They prefer to teach this kind of history:

The Florida Board of Education approved new social studies standards July 19 following a law passed by the legislature in 2022, known as "Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act" or the "Stop W.O.K.E. Act."

The law bans workplaces and schools from teaching that anyone must feel guilt based on their race as a result of actions by others in the past. Earlier this year, Florida rejected a new high school Advanced Placement course on Black studies.

The 216-page standards document covers a broad sweep of Black history, along with topics such as the Holocaust, world history and geography. It includes different standards for elementary, middle and high school students.

The part of Florida’s new standards that Harris was citing is for grades six through eight. It says:

"Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation)."

The controversial part is in this "benchmark clarification" about slave labor: "Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jul/24/kamala-harris/do-Florida-school-standards-say-enslaved-people/

THAT is where we need to stop removing things, not statues and dedications to traitors of the country

I wholeheartedly DISAGREE. We do NOT NEED monuments to literal fucking traitors. Should we put up a goddamn statue of Benedict Arnold too?? Jesus Christ. Do black people really need to see the face of the oppressors of their ancestors every day?

Not the same.

More so than we like to admit. Washington was a loyalist until the Dunmore Proclamation threatened his human chattel.

Lee broke for the Confederacy with the election of Lincoln.

Both these men were fundamentally driven by their economic conditions. The difference between Washington and Lee is that Washington won.

He doesn’t understand WHY the Confederacy started the war, does he?

The regional industrial power threatened the South's economic position as a confederacy of slave holders. That's what got Washington, Jefferson, and a host of other Southern planters on board, too.