On Racist Monuments

The question with what to do with racist monuments is a difficult one. I can certainly understand the desire to change or erase them. If I am a member of a traditionally oppressed group and I saw words like “colored” or “savage” every time I looked at a monument, I would be pretty mad about it too. As a historian, I can also certainly understand why people would want to keep those monuments up and interpret them and remember that America has a racism problem rather than erase that past. I’m definitely not sure the latter concern trumps the former.