Memorialization: What History Should America Honor?


Memorials pay tribute to a person or a group of people, they are to preserve a memory. People go to the memorial site to grieve or to spend time reflecting on the situation and their own lives. In the US there is an abundant amount of memorials dedicated to honor the soldiers lost in wars. Supposedly these are morals to memorialize but does history tell a different story?



From Mount Rushmore to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the Confederate Memorial in Arlinton National Cemetary, war memorials always recognize the soldiers being honored as someone people should aspire to be like or to think about when living their own lives. However, they completely ignore the negative impact soldiers had and how detrimental their actions were to people of color.

The lives of non-white people go completely unrecognized. This brings up a prominent issue of whitewashing history in order to preserve ideals that come from a time when lives other than white weren’t seen as worthy or of significance. Memorials not only represent the individual but also the type of person they were. Oftentimes these national memorials don’t prioritize thinking about what kind of ideals preserved are being presented to viewers.

Whether it was intentional or not, these memorials are some sort of political statement, they show what side of history the US is on. So far it is showing we are bound to repeat these mistakes as there are issues in acknowledging problematic history.

Memorials do pay tribute to a person whom people should reflect on, however, the target audience seems to be white people as people of color have a conflict of interest due to this nation’s history of violence and exclusion. It is time for the United States to commemorate figures who represent the future rather than the past. 

Comments

  1. Erin JeongSeptember 10, 2023 at 6:50 PM

    I also wrote about the ignorance that memorials sometimes produce by omitting parts of history. It’s unfair that the effort and sacrifice people of color put in throughout history gets forgotten. I like how you mentioned that, by continuing to make these mistakes, the U.S. is bound the repeat the mistakes of the past.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aleezay AhmadSeptember 10, 2023 at 7:57 PM

    This made me realize that many memorials commemorate a history that is undeserving of celebration. Although it may seem harsh to some, it's an overlooked and unfiltered lens to look at memorials through.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AdelineSeptember 10, 2023 at 8:32 PM

    I like how deep your analysis went, and how you connected the memorials to issues like politics and whitewashing. By also recognizing that these memorials show how history will be bound to keep repeating is something I never thought of and also agree.

    ReplyDelete

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