Mediaboss Marketing

In Boston, Massachusetts, a statue of Christopher Columbus was beheaded this week. In Richmond, Virginia, protesters toppled a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy during the Civil War.

NASCAR announced this week it would ban the Confederate battle flag from its races. Credit:AP

Virginia's Democratic Governor Ralph Northam ordered a giant statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee to be removed "as soon as possible" from the state capital and placed into storage. The HBO Max streaming service has temporarily removed Gone With The Wind from its library to add contextual material about the film's race politics.

At times, the zeal for justice has tipped over into the "de-platforming" of those seen as insufficiently committed to the anti-racist cause.

When David Shor, an analyst at progressive data firm Civis Analytics, tweeted a summary of an academic paper that found race riots reduced the Democratic vote share in the 1968 presidential election, he was attacked online for undermining the current protest movement.

The statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, has been torn down.Credit:AP

Shor quickly apologised but was fired a few days later after an internal review, according to New York magazine.

Debates about historical symbols that previously raged on university campuses have now gone mainstream, including in institutions that few would describe as "woke". NASCAR - long perceived as a bastion of white male conservatism - announced this week that it would ban the Confederate battle flag or "Southern Cross" from its races because many see it as a symbol of racism.

And Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said he was open to a discussion on renaming military bases bearing the names of Confederate generals - an idea military leaders previously opposed.

Loading

The Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee later approved a commission to rename Army installations currently named after Confederate figures within three years. This put the committee members on a collision course with US President Donald Trump, who said he would "not even consider" renaming the bases because they "have become part of a Great American heritage".

Trump appears to have public opinion behind him on this. Several polls released this week found more Americans oppose changing Confederate place names and removing Confederate statues than support such proposals.

It's a reminder of how deeply divided American society remains - even if progressives currently have the culture war winds behind their backs.

The rest is here:
How George Floyd's death changed the US culture wars - Sydney Morning Herald