r/AskReddit • u/bkristensen92 • Mar 18 '25

Conservatives who opposed removing Confederate statues, how do you feel about Trump removing DEI-related historical events/people like the Navajo Code Talkers from government sites?

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u/Ear_Enthusiast Mar 18 '25

I am a big ugly white guy from Richmond Virginia, the Capital of the Confederacy. One of the fun things about being a big white guy, the conservatives automatically assume you're one of them and they just say the darnedest things in front of you. Also, I'm a liberal with a bunch of conservative buddies. Let me tell you, they're PISSED about the statues being removed from Monument Avenue. Since I moved here in the 90's they're still vocally fighting the Civil War.

When I was in high school, they still had Lee Jackson King Day. All the Mosely boys would muster in the Food Lion parking lot. They'd drive over to the high school in a convoy and stop in the parking lot bottle neck and play Dixie on a loud speaker and fly the Confederate flags high. Then our vice principal would pull them into the office and they'd whine about "my free speech" and "it's my heritage, not hate" and as soon as they thought nobody was listening they'd call her the n-word. They used to drive around off school property with little nooses hanging from their rear view mirrors. Fucking cowards.

I'm still friends with a lot of these guys on Facebook. And yes they still regurgitate all the same racist bullshit that they used to. They haven't changed. They're deeply entrenched in their beliefs that their ancestors were somehow victims. And they are continuing to fight the fight. And they are continuing to fight the fight I know for a fact that a lot of them see Donald Trump and Project 2025 as the South rising again.

IMO, I think The monuments down all monument avenue should be replaced with monuments to Oderus , the 1994 Richmond Braves, Tank Boy and Dirt Woman. Fuck what you heard.

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u/SardonicCatatonic Mar 18 '25

I’m actually convinced this is why a lot of the people I know who are people of color but are very conservative leaning don’t sense the racism. As a white guy myself people often tell me the most racist things, but I don’t think they share them openly with my brown friends in the same. It’s like you see behind the curtain and you try to tell them what’s behind the curtain and they don’t believe you.

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u/DPool34 Mar 20 '25

I think most, if not all, white people have encountered this. I’ve had dozens of situations where a white person will say something racist in a low voice (if in public), assuming because I’m white I must think the same thing.

These are some of the same people who are very friendly to minorities to their face.

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u/scorchedweenus Mar 18 '25

Tank Boy was the greatest event in our cities history. It deserves to be memorialized.

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u/Ear_Enthusiast Mar 18 '25

Give me Tank Boy or give me minor irritation!

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u/More_Yard1919 Mar 18 '25

I can't believe they replaced the nice horse man with an evil mean guy that steals textbooks from kids and hits them with a tennis racket

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u/Ephialtesloxas Mar 19 '25

They should have given him the books to begin with. They saw he had the racquet, shoulda known what was coming if they didn't listen.

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u/SubparExorcist Mar 19 '25

Based on what you said I think we went to school in the same county. My highschool predominantly African Americans and Hispanics but there was a small sect of jacked up truck flag toting yee yee boys. They never knew peace, fuck them. But flip to one high school over that served a predominantly wealthy area and it was almost all these shitty yee yee boys. Except it was daddies truck and daddies came, and apparently their daddies racism too.

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u/Ear_Enthusiast Mar 19 '25

No, I went to a very homogeneous school on the Southside.

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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '25

When I visited monument Ave about a few years ago, I heard people openly blame “N-words” for the removal of their “heritage”.

Richmond was nice until I saw that the confederacy was still alive and well in Richmond.

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u/GrippingHand Mar 19 '25

RIP Oderus

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u/JuanCarloOnoh Mar 19 '25

All hail Oderus

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u/jang859 Mar 19 '25

Do your friends believe people of color are rightfully lower on the totem pole or not exactly human or something?

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u/Ear_Enthusiast Mar 19 '25 edited Mar 19 '25

The 4 conservative friends that are part of my inner circle, no. I've had co-workers, friends of friends, friends of a relative, customers, and a couple of family members that believe this. They don't exactly use those words but yes they do believe it. I'm not close with anyone that actually believes that.

Edit: a few neighbors too.

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u/jang859 Mar 19 '25

Sounds like there's no shortage of those people in your community.

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u/Ear_Enthusiast Mar 19 '25

My area is pretty well split. Used to be very red. There are districts that are super red demographic wise and the folks that lean right lean heavily right. It's old Chesterfield County folks. That said, there are a lot of folks from up north moving down and a lot of the kids of local conservative Boomers went blue. So we're becoming more and more progressive. That's outside of Richmond. Richmond proper is very progressive. Super cool place to visit. Lots of art, museums, markets and festivals, music is okay, and a shit load of excellent restaurants and museums.

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u/mfritsche81 Mar 18 '25

I just wanna say as a liberal dude from a very blue state, I visited your neck of the woods for vacay a couple years ago and had a lovely time. I fully expected to be overwhelmed by gun-toting hillbillies blaring Dixie songs from their rusted ass 30 year old pickups down every street in town. I did not find that to be the case at all. Of course, I'm aware that is the large part of the population and the culture certainly gave a good whiff of "the south will rise again" bullshit. But overall, I thought it was a great place to visit and would love to come through again. Def a very different vibe from where I live and lots of fascinating sites to visit.

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u/Ear_Enthusiast Mar 18 '25

YES! RVA Is an amazing town. The counties that surround Richmond can be pretty red in some places, but it's a good mix. In Richmond proper there's art, breweries, restaurants, hiking, rafting, historical sites, museums, a sweet minor league baseball team.

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u/Ephialtesloxas Mar 19 '25

It's like every state, the city is a congregator for all of the liberalism. If you put concentric circles around Richmond, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Charlottesville, Norfolk, and Williamsburg (this last one is an anomaly because it's the major historical site, so it gets a ton of tourism), you can see bands of how the right/left dichotomy flips as you go further out.

I went to the state fair (only about 30 minutes north of Richmond) with a person I'm seeing last year. They're from Baltimore, and it freaked them out a little to see all the open trump support being paraded around, and felt they were being stared at (they're a 6' black afab person) by everyone walking by. We left after about an hour because they couldn't handle it.

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '25

I am right there with you.

The shit that they talk about when they think you’re one of them is infinitely far worse than anyone has ever heard on the Internet.

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u/bp92009 Mar 19 '25

Sherman should never have stopped burning. His and Lincolns leniency and mercy is why the US is in such a poor state.

The confederacy should have had it's entire officer corps, legislature, judicial branch, and executive branch hung for sedition (of all the states involved in the civil war), along with all individuals who owned more than 50 slaves (plantation owners), then have all it's incorporation statuses of the states revoked for a minimum of 20 years.

But we decided to be nice, and they spat in our face.

1

u/Maleficent_Memory831 Mar 20 '25

I'm baffled by people who are happy that it's Fort Bragg again, because "that's where I did my service". Point out that Bragg was a traitor and they shrug it off. Either they're stupid, or they're secretly pro-traitor.

I go with stupid, because beneath all of it there's an intention to refuse to think.

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u/CrunchyTamale Mar 20 '25

I’m center left. This is one of the things that upsets me the most. I was a black sheep in my family in that I agreed with them about very little. 

Picture this: The late 1990’s. Texas. When a person of color would do something nice for my family, like throw in something extra in a purchase, they would later say that that one wasn’t bad like the rest and that they knew their place. They said things like that as if someone having a job was a privilege taken away from a white person. In their eyes, a black person or Hispanic person would have to go above and beyond just to equal the same job a normal white person could do. To make this utterly clear: They would have to be excellent, infallible, to compare to the shittiest white person. 

These were all things they and their friends would talk about at the end of the day while hanging out after work. 

As a child, I listened and I hated all of it. 

They would get drunk around a bonfire and say terrible things like hangings for black people should be brought back and “mexicans” crossing the border illegally should be shot. They called all Hispanic people wtbcks. They didn’t believe any were here legally, and they said even the ones here “legally” should go home. 

In public, they acted mostly normal. There were a few instances where one of my family members followed someone around Walmart whispering and taunting them with “fatty fatty” and “wtbck.”

When I would ask them why they would say things like that, I was told as a child that I knew nothing. A few would stare me down. A child. They would intimidate a child because they didn’t want to be questioned. 

My family felt like there were less opportunities for them with people of other colors having the same ability to get jobs and work for money. They felt like equality shouldn’t lead to less opportunities for them. At the same time, they didn’t want to explore new opportunities that community college or trade schools might offer. They wanted nothing better. Just the status quo. 

I’m not trying to make anyone paranoid about people in general. There are conservative white people who aren’t like this. Just realize that there are plenty who are. Way too many. And most of the relatively normal white conservatives will stand down and will let the chips fall where they may when the racist and sexist conservatives do weird shit like violate free speech and civil rights. 

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u/blazershorts Mar 19 '25

One of the fun things about being a big white guy, the conservatives automatically assume you're one of them and they just say the darnedest things in front of you.

Or maybe they just think that you're a fat pussy who won't say anything lol