I want to offer to those of you who have a beating heart love of Dixie and who desire to see a permanent reconciliation of Southern Whites and Southern Blacks based on mutual respect what I think is a good example of how to deal with the race issue as it pops up, as well as a very simple reply to keep at the ready.
On the 29th of August 2020 there was an impromptu rally at the Confederate monument on the Courthouse Square here in Paris, Tennessee. A rumour began circulating that Black Lives Matter (a leftist organisation if there ever was one) was going to descend in force and tear the statue down. Within hours several hundred locals had surrounded the statue and remained late into the night. Policemen and deputy sheriffs that were known by name circulated and there was never the beginning of a problem. A few men came decked out like G.I. Joe, but when asked to leave their rifles in their vehicles they complied.
For myself it was a seminal moment. A manifestation for all of us to see that we who would defend Dixie are not alone. That a line has in fact been drawn that will be defended by more than just a handful of hold-outs.
The next day one Dennis Hearod stood guard for I think about thirteen hours. At some point a group of counter-demonstrators showed up and hung out on the northeast corner. Sometime later Mr Hearod struck up a conversation with one of them, a young black woman. By the time they made their farewells, he had not converted her into a flag waving Confederate, but he had opened her mind to the reality that there are in fact two sides to the story as there are to all stories. She had simply never heard ours.
These individual interactions that we have from time to time, be they with whites, blacks, or mochas, is what will in time, bit by bit, allow us to recover the high ground so that the whole truth of our history is known. Not just the part that white commies want remembered.
However, most of the time we’ll have neither the time nor perhaps the persuasive powers of a Mr Hearod to give an adequate defence. What we need is a quick, fire-and-forget response.
So, when you are confronted with the Progressive interpretation of race relations in America, in almost any context, just say, ‘I like what Larry Elders has to say about it. You can find him on YouTube.’
First of course you’ll need to listen to Larry Elders. His episodes are short and engaging. Listening to three or four of them should tell you all you need to know.
I adore Larry Elders. He is an African-American champion of truth, goodwill, and reconciliation who represents yet another reason why I think, at the end of the day, everything is going to be okay.
In my view our long-term strategy must be a genuine and long-term reconciliation of the Southern White and the Southern Black, two step-brothers with a history both bitter and strangely fruitful.
M.C. Atkins
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“By the time they made their farewells, he had not converted her into a flag waving Confederate, but he had opened her mind to the reality that there are in fact two sides to the story as there are to all stories. She had simply never heard ours. ”
The reason this worked is people listened to each other. Although not stated here, I’m sure Mt. Hearod patiently listened to the young black women first. Then she listened to him. They were able to hear each other’s stories.
Having grown up in the North, I had never heard the other side of the story, that of the South. There was one narrative in the North and I never heard it questioned. That changed when our family moved to Tennessee in 2008. Shortly after moving here, our family visited the Ag Museum in Milan. On the second floor, my son recognized a portrait of Nathan Bedford Forrest which quite surprised the woman who was showing us around. Having told her we had recently moved here from the North, she asked if we had ever heard the Southern story. We listened to her story for the better part of an hour, of her relatives buried at Shiloh, of the loss of her family’s property and livelihood, of the inability to make sense of the disappearance of their way of life. North and South met that day and we became good friends.
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