The incoming president of the College of Charleston is the neo-Confederate Lt. Gov. of South Carolina Glenn McConnell. He is one more example of the politicalization of the administration of the public universities, which goes hand in hand with the privatization of those universities and in this case, the ushering in of a very American racialist ideology. McConnell has long argued that critics of his pro-Confederate stance seek to whitewash the past. In 1996 he said that the removal of the flag from atop the Columbia state house would be “the final installation of an intolerant mind-set, whereby we sanitize history based on the demands of the new monopolists of morality.” More recently, McConnell dismissed an infamous 2010 photograph of him in a Confederate uniform and flanked by two Gullah preservationists, who appeared to be dressed as slaves, in a similar fashion. The picture was taken at a historical reenactment intended for education purposes, he explained. “Tell me what is offensive about having the differing parts of the culture there? What are we going to try and do in America, sanitize history?” Yet when it comes to the negatives sides of the Confederate States of America he so admires, McConnell rarely practices what he preaches. On the contrary, he often marches in lockstep with the old monopolists of morality, who sought to sanctify the Confederacy by disassociating it from the institution of slavery. Indeed, a quick survey of McConnell’s words and actions during Charleston’s commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Civil War suggests that this Civil War buff could use a history lesson.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 16:57:23 +0000
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