Oh, but didn't Thomas Jefferson father a child by one of his slaves.
Yeah, so that makes him a despicable white slave owner that raped and pillaged and took advantage of his slaves for his own personal gain..... used and abused and slacked his base animal needs on a poor defenseless woman who had no choice. But it is okay for all the thugs.... of any and every color..... to "enslave" women today, to steal and destroy others hard earned and worked for livelihoods... to go in and just take, and walk off with, something that is not theirs, without any thoughts to paying for it or giving compensation... and then to expect that we should all sit back and allow it because it is for "compensation" for wrongs done to them 50 or 100 or 200 years in the past?????
There is NO CHANGING the past... nor can we make "right" what was done... that we consider wrong at this stage and time. This whole thing of we owe someone something; for a way of life that was lived by a different set of standards; is absurd. The only thing we can do is do it better by today's set of standards.... all the destroying of neighborhoods, businesses, peoples homes and livelihoods, is only making it worse.
"Making it right" can only be done by NOT REPEATING the things that we now find reprehensible. Changing the way we treat each other. Yes, there are some real unacceptable things like what happened to George Floyd... but the looting and rioting and destruction of the cities, the people hurt and killed, is also wrong and the lack of FAIR and IMPARTIAL application of the law in both directions is very WRONG.
You can't change the past by removing reminders of it....you can't learn from it if you erase the words and deeds from history books....you can't take away the humaness of the ones that fought for what they believed in at the time....and you cannot discount the impact of those that did what they did that shaped the world as it is today.
If the statues were so bad, then the people that felt so oppressed would have found a way to move away and start a life somewhere else. The founders of this country came here didn't they?
If you think it is so great in some of these socialistic countries, then go there. The system is already set up so you will fit right into a fabric that is established. If you think you are being so oppressed here, go somewhere else where it is not so oppressive....OR ELSE, LEARN from the past, and go forward without trying to erase what came before. Make it better in the future, but quit trying to take down and destroy, that which is a part of the fabric that is intricately woven into shaping what we have today.
And for the record, I have some Native American blood in me so have a RIGHT to feel indignant for the "wrongs" done to the Indians in the past.... wrong or right, I can not go back and change it.... I can only do what I can to make the future better....and some of my ancestors came over on the Mayflower and settled in New England so I have it from both sides. But I am not living in the past......right, wrong, or indifferent.