ARE THEY REALLY HOLDING TIKI TORCHES? LOL. 

Pick a side… In war, conflict, divorces, and Game of Thrones- we are all asked to pick a side.

For those who haven’t been keeping up with the horrifying events:

A man named Jason Kessler organized a Unite the Right rally to protest the removal of a statue of confederate General Robert E. Lee.

So, who is Robert E. Lee? This is for those of us who didn’t pay attention in history class, myself included:

He was a soldier who fought in the U.S-Mexico War. Once that was all settled, Lee was asked to pick a side in the Civil War. Free the slaves or not to free the slaves. He chose to not free them. Why? Because he didn’t want to go against his home state Virginia. (Dear Texas, if you get racist again, i’ll drop you like a hot potato).

After losing in the Battle of Gettysburg and surrendering to the North, Lee married into one of the wealthiest slave-holding families in Virginia. Oddly enough, Lee wrote “slavery is a moral & political evil”… while he refused and abused his slaves. His excuse? “they’re better off in the U.S. than Africa.”

Here’s where it gets weird,  when monuments started to go up of him in the South, he opposed them. Lee wanted the nation to move on from the Civil War and grow. Did Robert. E Lee finally realize that slavery and racism is wrong? Who fuckin’ knows?

Statue or no statue, people are behaving like animals to keep this statue standing. No, that’s an insult to animals. People are acting like racist pricks. “White Nationalists” my ass. Want to know who else showed up to support the statue? The KKK. Although Jason claims he didn’t want them there.

A woman named Heather Heyer, 32, died after being hit by a car that plowed through a crowd of counter-protesters. Her last Facebook post: “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention”.

Everything above is pretty much facts- with a little bit of my opinion.

My opinion?

Racism is real… It’s not as apparent as in the Civil War, but it is real.  It’s real when my brother and sister-in-law are judged for being an inter-racial couple. It’s real when I hear a woman referring to her daughter’s new boyfriend, “I’m glad she broke up with him, I couldn’t accept her being with a black guy, having black babies.” Racism is real when my black friend goes to the grocery store and is called the N word by some random woman. It’s real whenever a group of people who notably hate black people come out of the wood works. The threat is real, the people are real. And everyday, more and more of them are showing their faces with pride.

Racism is in peoples hearts, and is TAUGHT. It’s a disease. A disease that will not be taught and spread in my house, or my neighbors, or any of my friends. There are more of us than there are of you, Jason Kessler. I will never pick your side.