I admit that I am not familiar with Cville politics. I express no opinion on Bellamy. But I have read accounts, which I don't know to be true, about forced displacement of blacks from the area of Vinegar Hill, around the time the Lee statue went up. So I have no problem understanding why any local pol in 2017, and certainly a local black pol, might have very strong feelings about taking that statue down. There can be legit disagreement with that stance, but I can understand why some would hold it.

You appear to me to be saying that the pols in question should not be allowed to express that view, because doing so might be used opportunistically by racist groups. And I disagree with that. That would be allowing one's self to be muted by the actions of a bunch of racists.

Maybe Bellamy and Co. were over the top, overly dramatic, whatever - I have no view on that, but it wouldn't be the first time pols have been over the top, and over the top to a white guy in these circumstances might not be to a black guy. It's subjective. And no matter what, if the racists decided to opportunistically take over a protest about history, and turn it into this national abomination we saw a couple of summers ago, that's still on the racists, not the local CVille pols, who are not, and should not, be under any obligation to cater their speech to racists waiting in the wings to pounce. In fact, I'm sure you can come up with contexts where you would find such a thing to be a chilling sanitizing of speech.

[Post edited by hoolstoptheheels at 05/17/2019 12:49PM]