Q3: President Trump infamously blamed both sides for the Charlottesville incident but then also walked some of his words back. What was your reaction to that?
Francis Expecting decency from Trump has long left the barn. This is a white nationalist administration. But again, logic doesn't seem to cut it as much as hoped. Jocelyn Not sure how everything escalated in Charlottesville, but I saw the footage of people getting intentionally ran over. Trump is only exposing himself even more by blaming both sides. Freedom of speech should never result in death. Evelyn The point is, you can't compare neo-Nazis and the KKK with counter protesters. What the president should have initially done is denounce the mere presence of these groups in America. Umar Oh, that was a no brainer. He didn't do what he should have done. Now I get it must be pressuring to make any sort of press conference, but this was white and black. Day and night. There was no in the middle. Naveen People are being targeted for the sexuality, race, religion, even gender. They didn't do anything to promote this incessant hate. Given that it's always existed, these same groups of people have always had to be extra cautious of their words and actions as to not put a target on their own head. So, no I don't think anything of what Trump said is true; this is entirely the fault of the one side. So as a Muslim, how do you feel in a social climate like this? Do you blow it off or is there a part of you that has a level of concern? I'm a little bit caught in the middle. I'm absolutely terrified for the safety of my family. But I also know that many of Trump’s attempts at profiling and following Muslims never really took off the ground. I like to believe that whatever Allah challenges us with, he thinks we can overcome. I'm not too afraid for myself. Q4: In the latest form of protest, statues, monuments, and memorials of figures in history who hold a mixed past, have been destroyed, taken down, or questioned in place. What are your thoughts on this recent phenomenon? Brooke To answer your question, I highly commend the community leaders (for example mayor of Baltimore), who took down some of these statues overnight quietly. I feel like that's just the way you have to do it. Construction workers fix roads in the middle of the night to avoid traffic. Leaders can take down these statues overnight to avoid unnecessary protest. Maybe that’s insensitive to say it's "unnecessary,” but those people want to celebrate slavery and they lost, (in loose terms; I think slavery still exists but in other subtle ways in our society). For all the people crying, "you’re erasing history,” put them in a museum then. Tell the truth about what they were fighting for. Stop using these cheaply, mass produced statues to intimidate and offend. It's the wrong side of history and no one should feel emboldened to celebrate it publicly how we've seen lately. Umar I think those things should be moved to museums. I think they are a part of history just like many other horrible historic moments. Such as things from Genghis Khan’s time period yet we keep those. I don't agree with them staying up in public areas. I would rather see them taken down and put into museums for people to educate themselves on the history. History, whether good or bad, needs to be preserved so we learn from it. Evelyn I'm totally cool with confederate statues being taken down. I think if people want civil war era monuments placed in public places, it should be of the slaves and the horrors of slavery. This was done in Germany for the holocaust. If you want to learn from the past, give the victims a voice. Francis I'm cool with keeping artifacts of questionable historical figures as long as the point isn't to glorify them. However, it's difficult to argue glorification isn't the goal 98% of the time. So, I'm pro-taking them down. Of course, in this specific case with the Confederate monuments, the glorification isn't really about the individual Confederates themselves but the white supremacy goals they stand for. No one really cares about Robert E. Lee like that. But a lot of folks aren't here for anyone telling them how to feel about him either.
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Editor's NoteWelcome to the AD report. Archives
March 2017
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